Always and Forever
by jamesnlilyforever
Summary: Lily and James are at their last and most adventurous year at Hogwarts. Hidden truths emerge, sparks fly, and tragedy strikes. I changed my chapter seven because I didn't like it very much. But now, the updated version is up. Please R&R. Brownies for ever
1. The Beginning

Disclamier: Nothing is mine except for the plot and more of my OCs to come besides Arielle.

As Lily sat in her room looking down at her brand new head's badge, she couldn't help but feel as if she really did deserve it. Lily Evans was the kind of girl that would be studying for a test while most people would be in the common rooms, wasting time; one of those girls that would do anything for her friends and family. She was, overall, the type of girl that everyone would want to be friends with. Not only was she beautiful, she was also smart and talented. Once again, Lily looked down at the smooth parchment that lay in her hand. She pushed back her long auburn hair and her bright green eyes scanned the contents of the letter.

_'The only setback to becoming the head girl is that James Potter is the head boy,'_ Lily thought. Lily loathed James and his fellow Marauders. She felt as though they took nothing seriously. Looking back at the past six years that she had spent at Hogwarts, she thought about how much she really hated him. James was the type of guy that, as he frequently stated, 'girls couldn't get enough of'. Much to Lily's annoyance, he never studied yet got top marks in everything. In the words of Lily, he was an arrogant prat who needed to learn how to shrink his head. Ironically, James loved Lily almost as much as she hated him, maybe even more. She remembered the first time she had met him.

Flashback

_11-year-old Lily Evans walked uncertainly around the train station with her parents guiding her along._

_"Excuse me," Samantha Evans and her husband, Jake Evans, politely called the conductor._

_"Yes?" he asked looking oddly at Lily's owl._

_"Could you please tell me where to find platform 9 ¾?" she asked the man. The Evans has been searching up and down the train platforms and couldn't find out where exactly the train for Hogwarts would be arriving._

_The train conductor angrily rolled his eyes and said, "There is no platform 9 ¾!"_

_Sadly, Lily pushed her cart the opposite way and turned to leave. Petunia, Lily's older sister, stood behind her smirking as she was thinking of new ways to make Lily feel worse._

_Just as they were about to leave, Lily bumped into a boy who looked about her age._

_"Hurry up now! If you had left when I told you to, we wouldn't have been so late! The Hogwarts Express is not just going to wait for you," Lisa Potter, scolded while pushing him to go faster._

_"How could it not? I am, after all, going to be the most handsome boy there!" the boy declared._

'Did that woman say Hogwarts!'_Lily thought excitedly,'_Maybe Hogwarts really exists!'_ "Excuse me, but did you just say Hogwarts?" Lily asked, "I need to know how to get onto the platform. The train conductor told me that there isn't any platform 9 ¾."_

_"Oh, I can help you with that. It's James's first year too," she said. Lily looked at the boy she pointed to and she saw, to her embarrassment, that he had been staring at her. She and James walked side by side until they reached the barrier between platforms nine and ten._

_"All you have to do is walk straight through the brick wall," Lisa said. Lily, coming from a muggle family, had never experienced magic. And now she was suddenly being told to walk through a brick wall by a lady she had never met before who had a son that looked like he didn't know how to speak. She was about to turn back when she saw the proud look on her parents' faces. Soon, the two had passed through the barrier and were on the train, looking for a compartment._

_Lily had never been too good at starting conversations so she was hoping James would say something. But instead, he kept quiet and occasionally stole glances at her. Even though she didn't know it yet, James had already started liking her and hadn't wanted to say anything for fear that she would go away. Just as Lily was about to say something, they found an empty compartment. Soon, another boy strolled silently into the compartment._

_"Hi, I'm Sirius Black," he said loudly into James's ear._

_Seeing the shocked look on James's face, he laughed and said, "Scared you didn't I?" After a couple of minutes, the three had starting laughing and joking around._

_But then, as he usually did, James got ready for a prank. Thinking Lily would know that it was just a joke, he turned all of the chocolate frogs in the sweets trolley into ones that hopped onto her and got stuck there. They hopped all over Lily causing her to scream and push them all off._

_Lily was furious. She was about to storm away when he made all the frogs go back into their boxes and back onto the sweets trolley._

_"I-I'm sorry, I didn't intend for that to-to happen," James stammered._

_"Next time, try to think before you act!" she yelled at him. She walked away, thinking that she would never be friends with James ever again. James left standing there, next to a howling Sirius, wishing that he never made that happen as he would think many times after his first encounter with Lily…_

Flashback

Lily was suddenly awakened from her thoughts as her large brown owl, Alicia, hooted.

_'That's right; I still have to owl Arielle about becoming head girl!'_ Lily suddenly remembered.

Taking a blank parchment paper, Lily dipped her quill in ink and began describing the letter that she had received.

Arielle Collins was Lily's best friend and the person she trusted most in the world. Arielle was like and different than Lily in many ways. For example, Arielle and Lily loved reading, hated ditzy girls, and were both great at charms. But unlike Lily, Arielle had shoulder-length brown hair and hazel eyes. And their biggest difference was that while Lily thought the Marauders were a waste of skin, Arielle found them hilarious. Ever since she had found out that James like Lily, she always tried to convince her to give him a chance.

Lily sighed contently at the thought of seeing her friends and going back to Hogwarts and got up to place her finished letter onto the leg of Alicia. The owl took the letter and flew out of the open window into orange and pink sky of the morning.

Sirius Black flew up to the Potter Mansion, knocked on the door, and was let in by Harold, Mr. Potter, who saw Sirius running up the steps into James's room.

By the first time James had met Sirius, aka Padfoot, he had known that he was going to become good friends with him. It was the day that Sirius had suddenly appeared in front of James and Lily in the Hogwarts Express. From then on, James and Sirius were like brothers.

Before he even had a chance to knock on the hard oak wood door, James opened the door and let his best friend in.

"What was the big news you were telling me to come here for, Prongs?" Sirius asked, lazily. He had gotten an owl from James telling him to get to his house right away for something big. Knowing James as well as he knew himself, Sirius knew that it was either going to be about Lily or quidditch. He sat down on his large bed covered with light blue sheets. Just as James was about to answer his question, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew, the other two Marauders, came walking into the room.

"What did you call us here for James?" Remus asked.

"I'm head boy!" he yelled, happily.

"Gee, Prongs, I'm really happy for you and all, but did you really have to interrupt my breakfast for that?" Sirius asked unhappily as his stomach growled.

"Sirius," Remus scolded giving him a stern look. He turned to James and said, "Congratulations."

"And with that said, I'm going to go downstairs and have some of the breakfast Mrs. Potter made," Sirius said ready to walk out the door.

"Wait there's more!" James said, practically bursting with excitement.

"What could possibly be more important than my hunger?" Sirius asked annoyed.

"Lily made head girl! This means I might have a chance with her!" James cried. Silently, the other three Marauders exchanged glances.

"Um, Prongs," Peter said nervously, "Just because Lily is head girl, doesn't mean she is going to like you." James sat on his bed and rolled his eyes at his friends.

"Maybe you guys forgot. I'm **James Potter**. I can get any girl in school. All I have to do is get Lily to get to know me. Then, she won't be able to get enough Potter." James replied cockily. Although James looked confident on the outside, he wasn't so sure of what was going to happen. All he knew was that it was definitely going to be a long year.

A/N: So like it? Hate it? Either way, leave me a review!


	2. A Plan in the Makings

"Moony," James suddenly asked slamming his pumpkin juice down onto the table, "Why do you think Evans hates me so much?"

"I can answer that for you," Sirius interrupted, "she thinks you are an arrogant prat that will never change. Plus she thinks you are immature."

"Padfoot--," James started but was cut off by Sirius.

"You can't forget that she hates the way you always dump girls after only a week."

"Padfoot--"

"Oh yeah, she also hates how you always prank people and never get anything worse than a detention."

"**SIRIUS!--**"

"And she also--"

"Thank you, Black! Actually I was thinking more along the lines of advice," James said glaring at Sirius.

"Oh, then why didn't you just ask Moony?" Sirius asked confused.

"Sirius! Oh forget it; just eat," he said angrily.

"So Moony, why do you---,"James saw that Sirius was about to answer his question again so he quickly rephrased it. "What do you think I should do to make her go out with me?"

"Well, for starters, don't call her Evans. Maybe if you're nicer to her, she'll start being nicer to you," he replied. Although Remus could have given much better advice, he decided that he should go step by step on this so James wouldn't mix his advice up and do something wrong.

"That's it? Be nice? I could have gotten better advice from Padfoot!" James said picking up his backpack and getting leaving the Great Hall.

"Hey, maybe I'm finally going to be the smart one in the group," Sirius said happily. Sirius got up and followed James out to his first class.

Remus rolled his eyes as he and Peter left.

--------------------

"Hey Ev--- Lily," James said as she walked into transfiguration with Arielle.

Lily turned and, to her dismay, found out that James had been the one to greet her. "Uh, Potter," she replied eyeing him strangely. Lily had realized by now that the only time James said anything to her was to either tease her or ask her out, both to which she hated giving replies to. James turned around to smile at Remus.

"It's working! She actually responded to what I said!" James said excitedly. Remus gave him a small smile even though he knew there was very little chance that Lily would ever go out with him.

Lily and her friends sat down at their desks and put their books on the table just as Professor McGonagall started talking.

_'Gosh, Lily looks so beautiful. Why doesn't she want me?'_James thought in wonder as he started at the back of her head. Professor McGonagall was obviously saying something important since Lily was bent over her parchment and was writing furiously.'_Am I really that bad? I'm going to change for her. She doesn't like it when I hex Snape, so as hard as that will be, I'll stop. Maybe then she'll actually give me a chance. Maybe then…'_

James stopped his thought halfway done as he realized that Lily had stopped taking notes and had turned to look back at him. He gave her a charming smile and ruffled his hair and she rolled her eyes. Giving her a questioning look, he realized that she had been staring because the whole class had been waiting for an answer.

"Mr. Potter!" Professor McGonagall called for the third time. James suddenly realized that he had still been staring at Lily.

"An answer, please, Potter," she said sternly.

James, completely clueless to what was going on due to his constant thoughts of Lily, responded with a weak, "24?' Overcome with embarrassment, he saw that everyone, Lily included, started laughing and only stopped because they saw the look on McGonagall's face.

"24," repeated McGonagall wearily. She paused to shake her head and continued, "Potter, if you feel that staring at Ms. Evans is something you need time to do, I suggest you do it out of my class. 5 points will be taken from Gryffindor." With that, she turned and quickly wrote the answer on the chalk board.

"I expect you all to understand at least the basics of what we went over today for the test tomorrow. Class is dismissed," she said glaring at James and Sirius. Everyone picked up their books and trudged out of their class to their next period.

"You are so pathetic, Prongs. You got house points taken away from the teacher for Gryffindor," Sirius joked, patting him on the back as they started walking to class.

"Don't you embarrass me enough outside of class, Potter?" Lily muttered as she shoved her way past James and into the corridor.

"Wait Ev—Lily. I-I'm sorry. I didn't mean to embarrass you," James said sadly. The infuriated look in Lily's eyes was enough to normally make anyone back off but James was used to it. Over the years, Lily had yelled at James so much, he was surprised she had more insults and comments to throw at him.

Her infuriated look was replaced by one of utter repulsion and sadness, "That's Evans to you! Why can't you just leave me alone, Potter? Leave me alone and find someone else to bother." She turned and stalked away leaving James to stand in the near empty corridor, teary eyed. Arielle, knowing that James wasn't as bad as Lily made him out to be, gave him a pitiful glance, then turned to follow Lily to their Potions class.

--------------------

"Nicole!" Arielle yelled, "For the last time, I do NOT like your bloody cousin, Sirius!"

"Yeah, sure you don't," she said sarcastically, "Hey, if you two get married, we could be cousins!"

Nicole Black, a tall girl with dark hair and bright blue eyes, had been best friends with Lily and Arielle since their 5th year. Even though Lily and Arielle had known her before then, they were never exactly friend until their 5th year when they three started being in each others company a lot more than usual.

She was never very good at keeping secrets so Arielle didn't tell her that she actually did like Sirius for fear that she would tell her cousin. But Arielle, trusting Lily to keep quiet, had confided in her.

"Just like you don't like Remus, right Nicole?" Lily asked with a smirk on her face. Nicole turned red but still managed to say in a dignified way, "Of course."

"It's not healthy to hide your feelings," Lily said imitating one of the annoying girls in their room named Julie. Julie was one of the ditzy girls that Lily and her friends hated. She was constantly reading Witch Weekly and was head of the JPFC, SBFC, and the RLFC. In order to find out all of the latest gossip that hadn't come her way yet, she had taken to saying that to her other three roommates: Lily, Nicole, and Arielle.

"Kind of like how you hide your feelings about James, right Lily? You know he isn't really that bad. I do happen to spend a lot of time with him, seeing as I am his best mate's cousin. He is very sweet and he really likes you Lily. Why don't you give James a chance?" Nicole replied, hopefully.

Lily, still upset by hearing any mention of James in any way, started speaking in a calm voice and ended up yelling at the top of her lungs, "I do not, nor will I ever like Potter. I won't give him a chance even if he was the only male species on the planet. Nor will I ever befriend Potter or be in contact with him in any other way unless absolutely necessary. Even if, by some weird freak chance, I agree to go out with that cretin, I will magically and verbally assault him on our date. Even after said date, I will still never like Potter and will decline any further date requests. And just to make it perfectly clear that I have no feelings for Potter at all, I will say it again. **I DO NOT LIKE JAMES HAROLD POTTER**" By the end of Lily's little 'speech' she was fuming mad and taking in deep calming breaths.

Arielle and Nicole stared at Lily with their mouths open at that strange, not to mention loud, proclamation.

"Uh, Lils, a simple 'no, I don't' would have done it," Arielle said trying not to burst out laughing.

"Plus, like that old famous guy once said 'You can't hide what's inside'!" Nicole said. At that statement, the laughs that had been waiting to come out from the Arielle and Nicole finally came out which caused Lily to get even madder.

"You should have been there when McGonagall said that James should stop staring at Lily. She turned this bright red and she muttered to herself 'Stupid Potter is so full of himself'. It was hilarious. Lily totally likes James. She just doesn't want to admit it," Arielle said to Nicole, completely ignoring the dirty looks she was receiving from Lily.

"Yeah, and just yesterday," Nicole started.

"Guys, I am still here!" Lily yelled. Startled, her friends looked at her strangely.

"We already knew that Lily," Nicole said.

"Yeah, the whole world knows that by now seeing as that little declaration of ours was so loud.

"I think I'm going to turn in for tonight," Lily said glaring at her friends. Trying not to get Lily mad at them, her friends waited until Lily was out of earshot to continue talking about her and James.

"It's only eight!" Arielle commented, "Stay with us."

"For the rest of the night, I'm going to read. And do you know why? Because books don't respond to you," said Lily as she started walking back to where she had left one of her favorite books.

"I think she actually hates James," Arielle said.

"Arielle, don't you see the way she always turns red whenever he insults her?" Nicole asked.

"That could be because she gets embarrassed…" Arielle thought aloud.

"I doubt it. There is something that she is not telling us and I intend to find out," Nicole said looking at Lily reading on her bed.

--------------------

"Sirius, I need to talk to you," Nicole said entering the room that the Marauders shared.

"Okay, what do you need?" he asked, his eyes not leaving the magazine he was reading. She was about to tell him about her suspicions of Lily when she realized that James was in the room.

"Uh, I need to speak to you alone…" she said cautiously, hoping that James wouldn't suspect anything. Sirius looked up with a concerned look on his face and followed her down to the common room.

"Is something wrong?" he asked. He saw the way that Nicole had been eyeing James and was confused by it.

"I'm fine, but I have a big favor to ask of you," Nicole said while hoping that he would agree to what she said without questioning her.

"Ahh, favors. My favorite; you do realize that I am going to make you repay the favor," Sirius said smiling.

i 'Uh-oh,' Nicole thought, 'He is going to make me do something big!' i She rolled her eyes but still agreed to his terms. Sirius was the one person, besides James, that she knew for a fact was an excellent spy. And a spy was exactly what she needed.

"First of all, I don't trust you enough to tell you my plan right away. What I am going to tell you though, is that I need you, Remus, and Peter to meet Arielle and me in the Room of Requirement. I need something to get done but you have to have to promise me you won't tell James," Nicole said. Nicole knew that while she and Sirius were very close, he and James were even closer.

"Why can't I tell James?" Sirius asked with a hint of doubt in his eyes.

"I can't tell you yet!" she said seeing Julie coming through the portrait hole and picking a sofa in the common room to sit on.

"And why don't you trust me? I'm still your favorite cousin right?" Sirius said just to annoy Nicole.

"Stop talking about that, Sirius. Talk-talk about quidditch!" she said even though she knew once he started, he wasn't going to finish for a while.

He stood there as if he was contemplating whether this was a good enough distraction or not. "Okay," he decided. Suddenly, he started jabbering about his favorite sport. Then, he stopped. "Oh my gosh, do you like Ja--" Sirius started asking before Nicole jinxed his mouth to be glued together.

"Shut up! Merlin, Sirius, you are going to ruin my whole plan!" Nicole whispered. Julie's head quickly snapped up and she ran over to where Nicole was giving Sirius a very dirty look while transfiguring her book into a muzzle for him.

"Nicole, it's not healthy to hide your feelings!" Julie said eyeing Nicole oddly, "Now, who is it that you like." Somehow, Sirius had transfigured the muzzle back into a book and was trying to say through glued lips that Nicole liked James.

Nicole, getting more and more irritated by the second, threatened Julie, "Nobody! It's none of your business! Now get back to your room before I get really mad and decide that it doesn't matter to me if I get sent to Azkaban at 17!"

As soon as Julie left, Nicole lifted the spell and Sirius muttered, "Well you said that I can't tell James. The last time I checked Julie was a girl, and a very annoying one at that."

Too tired to argue any more, Nicole said explaining it slowly, "Sirius, think about it, no Lily and no James. Do I have to spell it out for you?"

Sirius stood there, still confused. "Yes," he replied.

"Sirius please don't make me more tired than I already am. Just make sure you get your friends to the Room of Requirement at 7:00 tomorrow evening."

Sirius opened his mouth to say something but, seeing that Nicole had her wand ready closed it again. He was about to say goodnight and leave when Nicole glued his lips together again.

"Goodnight Sirius," she said laughing.

'I'll get her back for that,' Sirius thought, 'Well actually my fan club will. I mean without these lips I can't kiss, smile, or kiss. But most importantly, I can't kiss. Did I already mention I can't kiss?' He shuddered as he climbed up the carpeted stairs to his room as he thought about what the world would be like without him.


	3. Moving On

"Okay, everybody agree on the plan?" Nicole said looking around the room at the four people surrounding her. Everyone nodded their head except for Peter.

"What is it _now_, Peter," Arielle asked annoyed.

"I don't understand how we are going to get Lily to go out with James," Peter whined.

"That's the point, Peter," Remus explained carefully, "We are not going to get them to go together. They will do that part by themselves."

"But then how does this plan get Lily and James together?" he asked confused again.

"Because, Peter, a week from now we are going to Hogsmede. Once we are there, Arielle and I are going to go one way while Remus and Nicole will go the other way. You aren't going so they can't stay with you and will be forced to stay with each other!" Sirius said.

"Lily and James have a lot more friends than just us!" Peter said, apparently trying to find the flaw in every aspect of the plan.

"Yes, but if they really do like each other, they will _want_ to be together. Get it?"

"What if they sit alone or something?" Peter asked.

"ENOUGH WITH THE QUESTIONS ALREADY!" Sirius yelled at him. Peter stared at him with large eyes and then nodded his head to agree. Sirius then calmly turned to the rest of the group and informed them that Peter agreed. Once that was said, the door appeared and the five left the room, ready with their plan waiting. But the five had never thought about the fact a week was too long…

--------------------

"Arielle!" Lily yelled, "Hurry up in there!" Today was one of the days where Lily and James had to go patrolling around the corridors and she didn't want to go looking like she did now: untamed hair, bags under her eyes, and no make-up on. Finishing all of her homework had left her tired and under groomed.

At long last, Arielle came out of the bathroom looking perfect. Sometimes Lily envied her friend. Her neat brown hair was streaked with lines of natural blonde highlights and her hazel eyes were always clear and friendly. Plus, she was the perfect height, unlike Lily who was always a little on the short side.

"What do you look so nice for?" Lily asked as she skipped into the bathroom to apply her make-up on.

"Nothing!" Arielle lied as she turned the same red as Lily's hair. When Lily saw that Nicole wasn't paying attention she said to Arielle, "Do you have a date with Sirius?"

"Not a date!" she whispered back, "Just two _friends_ hanging out."

"Right," Lily said narrowing her eyes at her friend and giving her a look that said 'I-know-what-you-are-up-to-but-I'll-let-you-go-for-now'.

"And why, may I ask, do _you_ need to look good tonight anyway?" Arielle asked suspiciously. "Don't you have to go patrolling?"

Even though Lily didn't want to admit it to anyone, even to herself, she had started to like being around James.

"Yeah, I thought you didn't care how you looked around James!" Nicole teased as she saw that Lily had come out of the bathroom.

"I don't!" she defended, "I just don't want him making fun of me." Nicole and Arielle shared a knowing look and walked away. Lily stood there confused as she combed her hair down.

_'That was odd, what was that look about. And since when do they care when I do and do not where make-up?'_ Lily thought defensively to herself.

Suddenly, Julie came and said to Lily her newest pharse, "If you don't trust your friends with your information, who can you trust?" Lily rolled her eyes and told that if there was any information to tell she wouldn't tell Julie as she wasn't a friend.

"Well, wish me luck," Lily said about to leave the room.

"For… what?" Nicole asked just to annoy Lily since she knew what she was referring to.

Lily stared at her friend and replied with, "For patrolling with J—Potter." Arielle smirked as she pretented to continue reading and saw Lily turning slightly pink.

"What?" she asked.

"Huh?" Arielle said looking up, "Oh, nothing. Good luck patrolling with J---Potter." Lily glared at her laughing friends and left the room.

--------------------

"Oy, Padfoot!" James said following Sirius around the room. Sirius turned and muttered a, "Wha--?"

"Never mind, Padfoot, I'll ask Moony," James said rolling his eyes at his friend. James had been trying to talk to Sirius the whole day and all he ever got were fragments of sentences that came out as intangible mutterings.

"Moony, what's wrong with Padfoot?" James asked coming over to where Remus was help Peter with his homework.

"What do you mean?" he asked irritated. He was attempting to teach Peter how to do a proper transfiguration spell and he kept transfiguring Remus's hand, instead of the quill in front of him, into a toaster.

"I wanted to know where I kept my shirt and he just muttered something about that Collins girl, Arielle. So I asked him where he though I left my head's badge and he just murmured that I should shut up because he was getting ready to snog," James said still mad that he couldn't find his badge.

"Didn't you know? He and Arielle are going out today," he responded showing Peter once again how to the spell properly.

Seeing the look on James's face he muttered '_Accio badge'_ and saw him smile. He laughed and continued to help Peter who had now started to turn his own hand into a toaster.

"It's not date!" Sirius yelled from the bathroom, "It's just two _friends_ hanging out."

"Right," James said narrowing his eyes at his friend and giving him a look that said 'I-know-what-you-are-up-to-but-I'll-let-you-go-for-now'.

--------------------

"There you are Potter!" Lily cried.

"I know, I know, you can't get enough of me, right," he said cockily.

"Cute," she said sarcastically.

"Yup, I sure am," he replied smiling.

"Look, do you think you can go through an hour of being around me without being so arrogant?" Lily asked rolling her eyes as she started walking down the dimly lit hallways.

i 'Lily wants me to stop being big-headed, stop hexing Snape, and stop messing up my hair. I can do this. It's just one hour/i ' James thought while messing his hair up. He realized what he was doing and quickly pulled his hand out of his hair and hurried to catch up with Lily.

"So…" he said.

"So?" she responded looking at him with a blank look on her face.

James realized with a jolt that he couldn't be like he was with other girls around Lily. She hated everything about him so he had to be someone completely different.

Suddenly, he remembered what Remus had said back in the common room while they were doing their homework.

-------Flashback-------

_"You know that advice you gave me didn't help, Moony," James said to Remus as he finished his Potion's essay._

_Remus, who was still working on his essay, answered with, "What advice are you talking about?"_

_"I mean when you told me to be nice to Evans and start calling her Lily!" James said mad._

_Remus sighed and looked up. He saw that James was struggling to keep his voice steady and calm so he decided to help him again._

_"Okay, well just try being yourself."_

_"But she doesn't like me."_

_"That's because she doesn't really know you," Remus replied. He quickly jotted something down and then placed down his quill._

_He smiled down proudly at his paper and started to pack up his bag._

_"Wait!" James said, "What if she still doesn't like me?"_

_"If she still doesn't like you---," Remus was suddenly cut off by Peter squeaking as he turned Remus's paper into a toaster._

"Peter!" _Remus yelled. He plopped down on the couch once more and decided to teach Peter the proper way to transfigure objects._

_-------_Flashback-------

"So, um, how are… things?" James asked trying not to irritate Lily but be himself at the same time.

"Good. Really, really great," she replied. Even though Lily had grown older, she was still not good at starting conversations. The memory of her first day suddenly flashed in front her eyes and she shook her head trying to forget about the embarrassing incident.

"Classes going good?" he asked.

"Yeah, yeah; going good. Really, really great," she said. James, without realizing it, started ruffling his hair again and started looking around awkwardly. Suddenly, Lily become conscious of the fact that James was nervous.

'_James is nervous!'_ she thought about to start laughing when she realized she had called him James. '_I meant Potter,'_ she thought, glad that she hadn't been speaking out loud. Desperate to stop the awkward silence, Lily said the first thing that came to her mind.

"Isn't cute how Sirius and Arielle like each other but won't admit it?" Lily said giggling.

"Yeah, you should have seen Padfoot today. I asked him anything and the answer would either begin or end with 'Arielle' or 'Collins'," James laughed.

"Yeah well, wait Padfoot?" Lily questioned.

James inwardly swore at himself and said, "Oh, it's just an inside joke thing." There was another awkward silence when neither of them could think of anything to say.

"Yup," they said at the same time. They both laughed and Lily thought about he might actually have changed during the summer.

_'He certainly looks a lot hotter.'_

_'Wait, what am I thinking._ _This is **Potter** that I am thinking about. I do not like Potter.'_

Suddenly, James let out a short laugh for, apparently, no reason.

_'See, he's crazy. And he's still arrogant and he drives me insane.'_

_'For the past few months, he hasn't been hexing anyone for no reason, has ruffled his hair only a few times in your presence, and he hasn't once pulled a prank of any kind on you,'_ the annoying voice in her head once again reminded her.

"What are you laughing about?" Lily asked, concerned about his mental health.

"It's just—oh, never mind," he said suddenly looking afraid.

"No, come on. I want to know," Lily said, chuckling to herself about how self-conscious he was acting.

"Well, it just looked like you were arguing with yourself," James said, trying to stifle a laugh.

Lily involuntarily turned red, "What do you mean? Was I talking out loud or something?"

"No, but I was asking you a bunch of questions and you just nodded or shook your head to whatever I said… and then I asked you if wanted to snog Snape and you just nodded your head," James said, starting to let his laughter out.

"Oh," Lily said, still a very dark crimson. For the next few minutes, the two of them kept walking, immersed in their thoughts.

_'Is it really that obvious that I am thinking to myself?'_ Lily questioned herself. She was suddenly horrified at her next thought,_ 'What if he can hear what I am thinking?'_She forced herself to stop thinking and kept herself busy with twirling her hair around her fingers.

_'I wonder what Lily is thinking about,'_ thought James looking at her, a horrified expression on her face as she thought something else. She noticed that he was staring at her although he couldn't peel his eyes off. He was intrigued with watching her twirling her hair.

"Jam--- Potter?" Lily asked. James heart skipped a beat as he heard her struggling not to say his name.

"Yeah," he responded casually although his heart was beating hard.

"Do you really like me or am I just a game to you?" she asked.

"No, I really do like you, a lot!" he responded stunned at the fact that she thought that she was just a game to him.

"Why!" she yelled stopping in her tracks. James stared at her as though she were crazy.

_'Who wouldn't like her,'_ he thought to himself.

"You are smart, kind, talented, beautiful, you always---," he could have gone on like this for hours but Lily abruptly stopped him.

"Woah, slow down, let me get this straight! First of all, I have never been nice to you, yet you think I am. You always get better grades than me and but you think that I'm smart. You think I am talented when I can't even do half of the spells that you do. And, strangest of all, you think I am beautiful when in actuality, I am not.

"I think that you are all of those things and much, much more, and do you know why Lily?" James asked summing up all of his courage.

"Why?" she asked disbelief showing in her beautiful, bright green eyes. Even though she was trying hard to stay calm, she was on the verge of telling James that she liked him. But she could tell that what James was going to say was important so she kept quiet.

With a sudden burst of energy and bravery, James said what he had wanted to say for as long as he had known Lily. Since the very first day when he had been introduced to a smaller, shyer Lily. Since the moment when he saw her at Hogsmede laughing and joking around with her friends. Since the time when he had gotten into his first fight with her.

"I love you Lily!" he cried his words echoing in the empty halls, "I've loved you since I first saw you. Since then, I've promised myself that one day I would tell you and now I have. Please don't turn me down."

Lily was speechless. She wanted to yell out that she loved him too. That she was, in fact, one of the girls that 'couldn't get enough Potter'. That she too had promised herself that she would one day tell him her feelings. But it was too late now. She had lost her chance.

Eyes full of hurt and pain, James walked away from the love of his life and tried to move on.

* * *

A/N: So, how was it? Good, bad, what do I need to fix? Please review. 


	4. Attack of the Killer Julie

Disclaimer: If you haven't already realized it, nothing Harry Potter realated is mine. Sad isn't it?

A/N: Sorry this took forever. I couldn't think of a way to write this. Writer's block is terrible! Well, at least it's up now. And I have done part of chapter five now so it won't be too long until the next update. Anyway, read, review, and most of all enjoy!

* * *

James hastily wiped the tears that were falling freely from his eyes away as he saw that he was at the Fat Lady's portrait. Quickly, he muttered the password and entered the common room. Surveying his surroundings with a quickly glance, he saw that the only occupants of the room were five first year students huddled in a corner, talking.

He breathed a sigh of relief and sat down on his favorite couch which was located directly in front of the fire. For a few minutes, he stared into the fire and watched as the few flames that were left starting flickering away and burning out.

_'Now I can finally sort out my thoughts in peace…'_James thought to himself, making sure that the first years didn't notice him.

_'I just told Lily Evans that I loved her. Oh, boy. What am I going to do now? She hates me, she just said so. I know that if she doesn't like me, and I can't do anything about it. But I can't understand how she could still turn me down after all of that. Well, at least she doesn't think that I hate her anymore,'_James thought bitterly. For the second time that night, James realized that his cheeks were wet. Forcing himself to stop, he cleaned his face with his sleeves and decided to go back to his room.

James sighed heavily and tried putting his usual expression on his face. Deciding that he looked happy enough, he entered the room trying to be as calm and nonchalant as possible.

Taking out his Charms book, he collapsed onto his bed and kept his book above his head with a levitation spell.

"What is wrong with you?" Remus demanded.

"Nothing, Remus," James lied as he turned the page with a flick of his wand. He turned his position and the book followed him. Remus stared at him and levitated the book down to his backpack.

"Hey! What did you do that for?" James asked, pretending to have been studying.

"Prongs, since the first time I have met you, you have never once been willing been reading a textbook other than during classes. What are you doing sitting there? And since when do you call me by my name?" Remus said.

James turned away quickly, not wanting his friend to see that he was trying hard not to start crying as he had done earlier. James turned and began to busy himself with organizing the knick knacks on his desk.

But Remus would not be so easily ignored. Walking over to where James was sitting, he stood with his eyes slightly squinting and gave him a scrutinizing look.

When he saw that James was giving him a 'back-off' look, he realized what it must have been.

"Does this have anything to do with the fact that you went patrolling with a certain red head today?" Remus asked hoping this wouldn't affect the plan that he and his friends had come up with.

James flinched at the mention of Lily but shrugged it off with turning his back on Remus again.

"You know, keeping it in won't do you any good," Remus said, sounding a slight bit like Julie when she was hounding people for gossip.

"Well, letting it out isn't going to help either!" James yelled as he, once again, turned and decided to take out his Transfiguration book.

"James," Remus said calmly, "Tell me what happened and maybe I will be able to help you."

"Get off of my back!" James said rather rudely as he got off of his bed and went to the trunk of his bed to get his night clothes out.

"James, will you just listen to me?" Remus pleaded. He knew that he was annoying James but if he didn't find out, there was no hope of their plan ever taking place.

"No! What the hell is wrong with you Moony? I don't want to talk about it!" James said slamming the bathroom door with a kick of his foot.

Remus sighed and walked over to his bed. He sat down and thought about what could have happened while he heard James whacking his head against the door multiple times.

-----------------

Lily walked through the door of her room in a daze. She hardly noticed when she heard Nicole greet her.

"Hey Lily," she said continuing to read her book, "Arielle still isn't back from her date. I mean her and Sirius 'hanging out'."

When she didn't receive a response, she looked up, confused. Glancing at her wristwatch, she groaned as she saw that Lily was twenty minutes early.

"You're early!" she said as she walked over to where Lily was sitting. For some reason, Lily was oddly calm and there was something about her that wasn't the same.

"Lils? Are you okay?" she asked her eyes wide in suspicion.

"Just fine," was the answer. Her voice came out in a slight squeak and she was staring at the carpet as though it was the first time she had ever seen it.

"No, everything is not 'just fine'. Something happened! What did James do? How much did you yell? And how many times did he ask you out?" Nicole asked.

"Yes it is. Nothing. Once. The usual," Lily responded in a monotonous voice.

"Lily! Snap out of it!" Nicole ordered. Lily immediately snapped out of her reverie when she heard Nicole being so demanding.

"What?" Lily asked as if she didn't know that she had just been acting like a robot.

"What in the world happened to you out there today?" Nicole asked after she drew in a quick shaky breath.

Lily quickly lost her temper and yelled**,"Nothing!"**

Nicole gave her a hurt look and retreated back to her bed and picked up her book. Lily, feeling guilty, followed her friend. After all, all she had done was try to help Lily.

"Listen, Nicole. I just- I just need time to recover from what happened. I promise I will tell you and Arielle all about as soon as she comes back from her da—hanging out with Sirius," Lily promised.

As if on cue, Arielle stumbled through the door still giggling from what had happened while she was with Sirius. She saw the looks and positions of her two friends and quickly regained her composure.

"What's up with you two?" Arielle asked.

"That's what we are about to find out," Nicole answered turning to Lily, looking at her expectantly.

"Okay, fine," Lily said. Arielle and Nicole sat down and started listening to what Lily said about what had happened. Her friends gasped and laughed in parts of the story as she continued. Finally, when Lily got to the very end of the story, her friends were left without anything to say.

Nicole gave her a very angry look but tried to comfort her anyway. For several minutes, the three girls sat on Nicole's bed each one thinking about something different.

"James Potter, open this damn door!" Sirius bellowed as he tried to open the bathroom door.

Remus had been trying to persuade James to open the door for at least an hour and had given up hope of him coming out. He was sitting on his bed and trying to finish the book he was reading. Without any idea about how his James was feeling, Sirius kept banging on the door, wondering why he had been in the bathroom for so long.

"What are you doing in there, mate? You know that no matter how much you try to look better, I will still be Hogwart's number one hottie!" Sirius called out, hoping to receive an answer.

"Padfoot?" Sirius heard Moony call out.

"What?" Sirius asked.

"You do know that James is hopelessly depressed about Lily, right? Because I think you were too busy thinking about your date with Arielle to register what I said."

"It wasn't a date!" Sirius replied as he slammed into the door causing it to fall over. Since James had it sealed tight, the only thing he could do was to ram the door open. The site he saw caused his blood to boil. James Potter, his best friend, was sitting on the counter near the sink, with tears falling from his face.

Sirius, for one of the first times, helped James out of the bathroom and onto his bed. He added some sleeping drought to the water he gave him and, in a few moments, James was sleeping.

Taking his wand, Sirius placed the door back on its hinges, and started walking out the door.

Alarmed, Remus called out, "What are you doing, Sirius?"

"Lily," he snarled in reply. Remus groaned and used all of his might to persuade Sirius to stay calm and let James sort it out on his own.

Sirius angrily plopped into his bed and tried to sleep but the only thing that came to his mind was seeing James crying.

--------------------

"Prongs, here comes Lily," Sirius said to James as he saw that Lily and her friends were walking toward the table the next day.

As they usually did, the three girls joined the Marauders for breakfast. As Lily sat down across from him, James looked around uncomfortably to look for something else to look at, as did Lily.

Nicole and Remus immediately noticed the tension and tried to think of topics to break the ice.

"So, is anyone here ready for the Transfiguration test today?" Remus asked. He knew that James loved Transfiguration so he was expecting him to start talking. Instead, Peter stupidly started talking about how he didn't understand how he still didn't know how to transfigure a quill into a toaster.

"Well," Nicole cut in when Peter kept droning on with no end in sight, "What about you Lily?"

"Yeah, I feel pretty prepared," she said, deliberately not looking at James. During their sixth year, James had tutored Lily for a short while in Transfiguration when she started slipping in that class. Sirius and Arielle caught on to what they were trying to do and Sirius asked James how he felt about the test.

"It'll be alright," he responded staring at the piece of toast in his hand. Arielle looked desperately at Remus who looked Nicole who looked to Sirius, all of them hoping that the other would have something to say.

"Uh, so Hogsmede is coming up in two weeks," Sirius said at a lame attempt to get everyone talking.

James dropped the piece of toast he was holding onto his plate and Lily nearly choked on her pumpkin juice.

"Right, well, why don't we go together," Sirius asked Arielle, kicking Nicole in the shins to signify that she should ask Remus. Nicole stifled a moan of pain.

"Sure, Sirius," Arielle said.

"You want to go?" Nicole asked Remus. He nodded in agreement and the four of them looked expectantly at Lily and James. Lily gave her friends stony glares and looked around for someone besides James to ask and her eyes fell on Peter.

"How about it Peter?" Lily asked kindly.

"Uh, uh," Peter stuttered._'Remember the plan,'_ Peter reminded himself.

"I can't go!" he nearly screamed out. Lily looked at him oddly as he sighed happily.

"Who are you going with Prongs?" Remus asked. James shot him the dirtiest look he could muster.

James saw Lily looking extremely embarrassed and decided that it was time that he stopped pursuing Lily.

"Uh, I'm going with," he said, his sad hazel eyes scanning the Gryffindor table, "Julie!"

Arielle's eyes nearly popped out of her sockets and Nicole looked at Lily sympathetically.

"Time for class," Lily announced loudly, her voice slightly cracking, as she picked up her backpack and swiftly walked out of the Great Hall.

"What did she mean by that?" Peter asked confused.

"She meant it's time for class," James responded. He then got up and followed Lily.

--------------------

_'The sun is shining. The birds are chirping. Everything is perfect. Except for**her**,'_ Lily thought as she looked over to where James and Julie were sitting. It was the Saturday before Hogsmede and nearly all the students that were going were excitedly talking to their friends about it. Lily sat staring at James with a longing expression as she half listened to what Arielle was saying.

"So I was thinking, should we go to the Three Broomsticks first? Or maybe Honeydukes? What do you think Lily?" Arielle said looking expectantly at her friend.

"Um, the red one for sure!" Lily said, distractedly. In the past two weeks, whenever Lily saw James with Julie, she would have a hard time concentrating on anything other than ways that she could get rid of her.

"The red one?' Arielle asked confused, "Lily what are you--?"

"Oh my gosh, James! You are like so funny!" Julie cackled in a loud enough voice for anyone in their vicinity to hear.

James smiled uneasily, and then quickly snapped his head in the direction of the area that Lily was sitting in. He saw her with a frown on her face and decided to take advantage of the fact that she was watching them.

He wrapped his arms around Julie and started snogging her in hopes that Lily would see.

"I just remembered that I have to return a book so I'll see you guys later!" Lily said in a rush as she jumped to her feet. Keeping the urge to yell out in frustration at bay, Lily walked as quickly as she possibly could up to the Gryffindor common room.

--------------------

Lily sat up in her bed in anger. Tearing her curtains open, she reached for her wand to light up the area around her. She glanced at her watch and saw that it was two in the morning.

The whole night, she had been tossing and turning, trying and failing to go to sleep. All thanks to James. Finally she decided that sitting by herself and sorting out her thoughts might do the trick.

_'Maybe I do like him. I mean what is so wrong about that?' _Lily thought as she descended the steps into the common room.

_'Okay, I'll just make a list of things that could possibly go wrong. Then I can sort out the bad reasons from the worse reasons and then I can decide.' _She quickly went back into her room and picked up her backpack which contained her notebook. Even though Lily would never admit it, it was basically a diary. This is where Lily wrote everything important about herself; her thoughts, ideas, and anything else that came her way.

She placed her backpack in the spot next to her and took out her quill and some ink. Once she was as comfortable as she could get on the sofa, she started writing.

After twenty minutes, Lily looked down at her list, wondering if she wrote everything she wanted. She had accurately described every possible thing that could, and probably would, go wrong if she liked James. It read:

**Why I Shouldn't Like James Potter**

1. I would endure never ending taunts from: Nicole, Arielle, Sirius, possibly Peter, and especially James... if he ever gets over the surprise.

a: Nicole: She has always suspected that I liked James. She is one of his good friends as well as my best friend.

b: Arielle: She practically i knows /i that I like him. She won't let me live with the fact that I have always argued with her about the subject.

c: Sirius: Too many reasons and taunts to explain.

d: Peter: He'll agree with anything that Sirius says.

e: James: His ego will get much, much bigger and that will just make him tease me more.

2. Potter's fan club will be after me

a: They will, no doubt, spread rumors.

b: I'll probably have hexes shot at me everywhere I go.

3. It will ruin my reputation

a: I won't be a good role model anymore.

b: Everything that I have been striving to prove for the past six years will be a waste.

c: He'll be the first real boyfriend, excluding a few dates, which I've had.

4. I won't be able to concentrate on anything but him

a: I'll start worshipping him like all of his fan club members.

b:I might not have time for many other things.

c: I'll start making lists like this...

With sleep filled eyes, she scanned the list for a second time and shook her head. Although she wasn't completely happy with it, she kept it anyway. Lethargically, she put everything back into her backpack and made her way back up the stairs.

But little did she know that the whole time she was downthere, someone was to. And that someone had been staring at her, transfixed, since the moment she came down. Finally, the mysterious person left. And when the person was gone, the only trace that was left was what the person had been carving in the table: JP+LE.


	5. Secrets Revealed

Disclaimer: I own nothing Harry Potter.

A/N: A little bit of language when Lily and James are arguing. So if you don't want to read that part, it won't make a difference to the rest of the chapter/story. Please review!

* * *

Lily was depressed. James hadn't even glanced her way the whole day, he was constantly with Julie, she had three tests the next day, and to top it all off, she had a pile of unfinished homework sitting in front of her.

Miserably, Lily continued her tedious work in silence for a few minutes until, once again, she was disrupted.

"Too much homework!" Arielle complained as she finished her Divination essay and saw that she still had to do Transfiguration, Charms, and Potions.

"I'm going to take a break," Nicole said as she massaged her hand.

"You do that," Lily said as she tried to do five classes of homework all at once.

"What is your rush?" Arielle asked, "It's only 6:49, you know."

"Yes, I know that, but I have to go patrolling today at 8:00!" Lily said as she flipped the page of her book, scribbled something on some parchment, and turned her extra quill into a goblet of water.

"I bet you that James is going to be late anyway!" Nicole said laughing.

--------------------

When all they received was a cold glare in response, her friends stuffed everything into their backpacks and went up to their room to do their work.

After a while, Lily was still downstairs rushing to finish her homework. She knew that when she got back from patrolling, she would probably be too tired to do anything but sleep.

"So in conclusion…" Lily muttered as she started writing the ending of her paper. Without any warning, her watch started beeping repeatedly. She looked down and saw angrily that it was ten minutes to eight.

"Great," she muttered. Picking up her almost finished essays, Lily neatly laid them into their binders.

"Get.. in!" Lily said struggling to cram everything into her backpack.

"URG!" she screamed out in frustration as the bottom of her dark blue backpack ripped through causing all of the items she had so carefully placed to fall down. Throwing her now useless bag onto the couch, she bent down and gathered everything into her arms.

She placed it onto the table with an impatient slam and was about to fix her backpack when she saw that her wand was not anywhere in clear sight.

"No!" Lily moaned. She tore the area she had been sitting in upside down, all to no avail. While she had been writing her essays, she hadn't realized that she had accidentally kicked her wand underneath of the large chair next to her.

Her watch, once again, loudly beeped and she looked down to see that it was now 8:00.

"No, no, no!" Lily muttered, "I can't go yet!"

--------------------

"Anything else, sirs?" a timid house elf named Ella called up to the four boys.

"Nope," replied James, Remus, and Sirius.

"I will!" Peter said.

"Don't you think you have enough food, Peter?" Remus asked eyeing his cartful of food that varied from waffles to non-melting ice cream.

"There is nothing wrong with a little extra food!" Peter huffed.

"Not like you need it," Sirius laughing at the pudginess of his stout friend. Then, James's watch started beeping at a rapid speed. 7:50, it read.

"Well, I'm off," James said quickly finishing the cauldron cake that he had been eating.

"Wow Prongs, I never thought I'd see the day when i you /i were time conscious!" Remus said as he saw James make his way to the exit of the kitchens.

"Yup, don't want to be late for the queen of mood swings," James replied.

"Why don't you just admit that you still like her, Prongs? It's not like we're going to judge you or something!" Sirius called from across the vast room.

"I am over her! I have um. You know. I have uh," James said.

"Julie Edmonds," Remus finished for him.

"Yeah, I have Julie!" James said trying to sound pleased about it, "At least now I will know the latest gossip," his last sentence phrased more as a question than a statement.

--------------------

When he had arrived, he looked down at his watch and happily noted that it was five minutes until 8:00.

James looked around and, to his immense pleasure, saw that Lily wasn't there. For ten minutes, he stood there in front of the head's room, waiting for Lily to arrive.

_'So this is what it is like when I don't show up on time…'_ James though angrily.

Finally, after fifteen minutes of waiting, a ruffled Lily came running down the corridor.

"Now doesn't this seem familiar," James said referring to what had happened the previous patrolling day.

Lily laughed awkwardly and averted her eyes as they started their patrolling duties.

"So," Lily started as a weak attempt at a conversation.

"Not that again!" James joked. Even though the two were trying to lighten up the mood, there was still a huge strain on it due to the fact that the last time they went patrolling didn't go to well.

"Well Hogsmede is sure going to be fun, right?" James asked as to find out if Lily had asked any one yet.

"If you are going that is," Lily muttered as quietly as she could.

"What was that?" James asked.

"You heard me perfectly well!" Lily snapped.

James looked afraid for a second, just a second, then regained his cool, "Why aren't you going?"

Lily glared at the floor and said, "Didn't ask anybody."

"But surely _somebody_ must have asked you!" James said, clearly stunned at the fact that nobody had wanted to go with her.

"Plenty of people asked me, Potter!"

"So, we are back to my initial question? Whyaren't you going? I've heard this is going to be one of the best trips of this year."

"Because," Lily said.

"Because why?" James countered.

"Because I don't feel like it!" Lily yelled.

"Okay, okay!" James said, lifting his arms in defeat. After a few moments of silence, James started to talk again.

"Julie said that--," James was about to talk.

"I **don't** to hear want about Julie!" Lily said. Her voice squeaked slightly as she said her name.

"Alright," Pause. "Well, you know that The Three Broomsticks is going to give out free--,"

"Can we talk about something else?" Lily quickly cut in.

"Okay. Isn't in nice how Remus and Nicole are going to go to," James was, yet again, cut off by an angry Lily. She growled sounding much like a dog which shut James up. But not for long.

"My bet is that the first thing that Frank is going to do at Hogsmede is find a place to--."

"**Potter**!" Lily yelled. As soon as she caught his full attention, she continued almost desperately, "Isn't there_anything_ else we can talk about?" After a much lengthier pause than before, James continued.

"Sirius and I are going to Zonko's the first--," James would have finished with 'the first chance we get' but what was immediately shut up by Lily smacking James on the face.

"OW!" he yelled out in pain, "What the bloody hell was that for?" Gingerly, he rubbed his cheek that had now turned red.

"For not shutting up when I wanted you too!" Lily yelled.

"You just can't accept the fact that people can have fun without you!" James screamed.

"No, I just can't figure out why you act like such a damn prick!"

"Maybe it's because I have to talk to dumb bastard like you!"

"Shut up!"

"Don't tell me what to do!"

"I said**shut up**! Before I get really mad!"

"The way you act, no one would be able to tell the difference," without so much as an ounce of guilt showing in his face.

"This is why I hate you! Me and everybody else!"

"Oh really, well I don't see a line of people behind you just waiting for their turn to smack me!"

"Why do you always have to turn everything I say into something negative?" Lily screamed.

"Me!" James yelled in a complete blur of fury, "You are the one who socked me for trying to be nice!"

"What the hell do you mean by 'trying to be nice'? You were deliberately making fun of me for not having a date!"

"Was not!"

"Were too!"

"Was not!"

"Were too!"

"See, just being in your presence makes me even more dumb! You have me yelling like some kind of stupid two-year-old who doesn't know how to properly argue!"

"You may not look two, but you certainly act like it! And if you are so smart you would know that the correct grammar is 'dumber',"

"WHAT? I specifically remember you starting off with 'So…' And who the hell cares about grammar?"

"What does starting a conversation have anything to do with this? And at least I wasn't the one who started talking about how the dumb Hogsmede trip was going to be so damn fun!"

"WELL, LET ME TELL YOU SOMETHING LILY EVANS!" James was just about ready to tell, more like yell, to Lily what he was going to say, when she, once again, slapped him on his cheek.

"WHAT THE…" James started. Lily put a finger to her lips and yanked on James's arm.

"What in Merlin's name are you doing?" James whispered as she yanked him over to a random classroom.

"If you would shut up, you would know!" her eyes wide as she pressed her ear against the door.

"What..." James started. Lily once again attempted to quiet down James. She turned his head and pressed his ear against the door.

Finally, James caught on to what Lily was doing. For a second, he didn't hear anything. And then, the voices started.

"No! I won't do it!" came a high voice.

"You must!" a lower, and angrier voice yelled.

"Lower your voice! We don't want anyone to hear us!" the high voice came again.

"I repeat: you **must**!"

"Really? Give me one good reason why I should listen to you!"

"Because if you don't the Dark Lord--," the deep voice said. He never did finish what he was going to say though because suddenly, the doorknob started turning.

Instinctively, both Lily and James raised their wands. Suddenly, James retrieved his invisibility cloak from inside his robes. Just as the door opened, James threw the cover over Lily and himself and quietly told Lily how to leave.

Without realizing it, Lily let out a rather loud gasp which caused the two figures that emerged from the room to glance in the direction of the sound. Even though they were almost out of the hallway, Lily and James could still faintly hear what was being said and who it was being said by.

"I told you it wasn't save, Severus!" the girl scolded. The voice had come from a girl that Lily knew, detested, and shared a room with. The girl was Julie Edmonds.


	6. The Trip to Hogsmede

A/N: I am so sorry for not posting sooner! I would have a huge list of excuses here but that wouldn't change the fact that I left the story at chapter five for so long. I really hope you like this chapter! It is my longest one yet, and it is most probably going to be my longest. This took me so long! Partly because of the fact that I posted here much earlier than Mugglenet causing me to not start working on this chapter until at least a few weeks after I posted chapter five. Then it took me even longer to actually write this, and now, here I am, apologizing for the wait.

Hope you like it! Please review!

Arielle and Nicole:

"I don't think our plan is going to work!" Arielle moaned as she started applying blush to her cheeks.

"I think we knew that even before we thought of the plan in the first place," Nicole agreed.

"What are we going to do? Lily isn't even going anymore! Plus, Julie is like a magnet! She _never_ leaves James's side," Arielle said.

"Why don't we just call the whole plan off? Then we can go with each other and Sirius and Remus can go with James. At least then Julie might feel left out," Nicole said reluctantly.

"No!" Arielle nearly screamed. Even though she had agreed to go along with the plan for Lily and James's sake, she was happy she had a chance to go out with Sirius.

Nicole smirked and asked in an overly sweet voice, "And why not? Could it have anything to do with the fact that you are going with my cousin?"

"It might," she muttered while experimenting with different hairstyles.

"Maybe, we could _casually_ bump into James and Julie. Then, we could be so rude to her that she will have to leave!" Nicole said mischievously.

Arielle snorted and said, "Right, like _you_ could be rude to anybody!"

"You do know that we are not solving anything by going with Sirius and Remus, right? There's no point to it!" Nicole said sensibly.

Arielle turned to her with big eyes that made her look extremely sad, "But we are still going with them, right?"

"Maybe next time," Nicole said giving her a look that said 'hey-I'm-sad-about-it-too-so-don't-complain'.

Arielle rolled her eyes at her friend, wiped off her make-up claiming that, now, there was no reason for it, and went down to the common room to inform Sirius and Remus of the change in plans.But what Arielle didn't see is that as soon as she left, Nicole slumped onto her bed and said in a depressed look, "No chance of Remus liking me now...'

--------------------

James and Julie:

The clock on his bedside table read 10:50 AM. He had been awake for two hours now, but he felt as if he couldn't move even if he tried. James knew that he would soon have to go down to the common room and pretend that he had never heard anything that Julie had said the night before. He also knew that he had to talk with Lily at least once before he left. Yet another thing that he knew was that if he didn't get a move on, someone was bound to realize that something was wrong. What he didn't know, however, was how to do all of this and still keep his cool.

All he wanted to do at the moment was talk to Lily. Unfortunately, he didn't know how she would react to seeing him, let alone talking to him. He sighed making a deep and unhappy sound.

_'Well,'_ he thought with a sigh_,'It's worth a try, anyway.'_

With a slight groan, he pushed himself off of his bed, took his glasses from beside him, and made his way, as slowly as possible, to the bathroom. Although he was expecting himself to look somewhat sleep deprived, he wasn't expecting the sight he saw in front of him.

With the exception of his always messy hair, James looked like a wreck. This morning, his usually bright and alert hazel eyes looked dimmed and were shockingly bloodshot. Due to his 3-hour-worth-of-sleep-night, large purplish bags were presently underneath his eyes. His face was covered with twice the amount of morning stubble than usual giving him a very depressing look.

Quickly, he splashed his face with water, brushed his teeth, and smoothed out the wrinkles from this school clothes that he hadn't bothered taking off the night before.

Once again, he sighed, then started making his way down to the common room in hopes that his friends had come up to the common room before heading off to Hogsmede. As he was making his way down the seemingly long staircase, he was disappointed in hearing that, apparently, nobody was down there.

But, as he had been for the past few days, he was wrong. There, sitting in the chair that he had grown accustomed to seeing Lily sitting in, was Julie. His eyes grew wide after seeing her, afraid that she might have seen Lily and him yesterday. As soon as she turned her gaze from the fire to his eyes, though, he could tell that there wasn't even a hint of suspicion on her face.

_'Although she could be lying,'_ he thought maliciously,_'After all, it wouldn't be the first time...'_

"Jamesie _darling_! Where have you been? Your little friends wanted to know when you were going to come down. They got bored after about thirty minutes so they told me that they were going to be on their way. I told them to go ahead and that we wanted to spend a little time together first." She smiled and came toward him holding her hands out.

He took her hands in his, despite the fact that he was terrified that any minute, someone could attack either Lily or him. All he could think about was the night before when he had seen her coming out of the classroom with Snape.

A sudden thought occurred to him, _'Weren't Sirius and Remus going to go with Arielle and Nicole?'_

"Well?" Julie asked. It was then that he realized that he had been staring at the ground in thought as Julie sat there. "Aren't we going to go?" She gave him a questioning glance but seemed to let it go as she saw him moving towards the door.

Still grasping her hand, they made their way to the Great Hall to leave.

Lily:

_'Where is James!'_ Lily thought impatiently as she checked her watch again. Against her better judgment, she was willing to go to Hogsmede, but only because she needed to talk to James.

Once again, she checked her watch and saw, to her immense anger, that it read 10:40. _'That means I have been sitting here an hour and fifty minutes? Fine, I'm leaving. If he wants to talk about it, he'll have to come and find me!'_

She stood up, waited for a few more seconds, then stomped out of the Great Hall muttering something under her breath about missing breakfast because she was too busy worrying and waiting for 'His Highness Potter'.

Snape:

"When will the task be completed Severus?" a chilling voice asked through the Slytherin common room's fireplace.

"Soon, my lord," he answered.

"Soon? Soon is not fast enough! I need it to be done **now**!" the sharp and venomous reply came quickly.

"As you wish," Snape answered turning and walking quickly out of the room as the image of Voldemort disappeared into the flames.

Angrily, Snape's thoughts led him straight to Julie.

_'If she had just done what I told her, maybe we wouldn't be in this position!'_

Kicking at the wall continuously was the only thing he could think of doing at the moment.

"Not -kick- even -kick- my -kick- fault -kick-!" he yelled at the wall as if it was the cause of his fury.

Suddenly, a vicious idea entered his head.

_'Okay,'_ he thought, pushing the doors of the Great Hall open, _'Let's just see how willing she is when I am through with her.'_

A wide grin replaced the sneer and he went off in search for a certain blonde.

Sirius and Remus:

"Hey guys!" Arielle said as a greeting to Sirius and Remus in front of her.

"Well, hello, Arielle," Sirius said as he slipped his hand around her shoulders, "What took you _so_ long? You don't look any different!" Arielle gave him a look and maneuvered around his arm for the rude comment.

"If you must know, there has been a change in plans," she said, now turning to Remus, "I'm so sorry, Remus. Nicole and I aren't going to be able to make it. She is convinced that it won't be able to help Lily and James in any way to go on with this plan if Lily isn't even going. So we were wondering if maybe you could go with James. But we both promise that for the next trip, plan or no plan, we'll go with you." Finally, she paused to take a breath.

She gave Remus a quick hug, gave Sirius another look before giving him a hug as well, and then ran up the stairs back to where Nicole was waiting.

"So, what do we do now? I mean do we still go or are we staying here like the girls?"

As soon as he said that though, he say Nicole and Arielle coming down the stairs and leave from the common room.

Remus turned to give him a look, "I'm guessing the girls aren't going to be staying here. Well, I guess the only thing we can do that won't leave us bored out of our wits is to--"

Sirius interrupted, "By hexing Snape! You are a genius Moony!"

"No, Padfoot. I meant that we can just go to Hogsmede with James, like Arielle said. I'm sure he won't mind." Remus explained with a slight sadness in his tone.

Over from her spot by the sofa, Julie sat up straighter when she heard the mention of James.

_'Pesky friends! What happened to leaving me alone with James for Hogsmede?'_ she thought in anger.

Quickly, she took a deep breath and walked over to the two bored boys.

"Hi Sirius! How's it going, Remus? James told me last night that he was going to be waking up pretty late. I'm surprised that he didn't tell you any of this! He said that he'll just meet everyone at The Three Broomsticks later on today. Plus, he wanted to spend a little time alone with me first," Julie lied.

"Okay," Sirius said without a second thought about it.

Sirius turned to leave but Remus held him back, "Wait, James went patrolling with Evans yesterday. How could you have talked to him at all? He was with us the whole day and he didn't come in until late last night."

Both boys gave her intense stares. Finally she said, managing to keep her voice steady as she lied yet again, "Of course he went patrolling! Don't you think I would know that? I went up to the common room early on through dinner last night to finish the loads of homework I had. James came up about twenty minutes later and informed me of his plans."

Although they were both still suspicious, they let it go and left the room in hopes of having a good enough time to forget that they were sad about not going with the girls.

--------------------

Arielle and Nicole:

"Finally we are out of that store!" Nicole moaned as she took a seat on a hard wooden bench outside of a shop labeled 'Madame Camilla's Clothing Boutique'.

"What are you talking about Nicole?" Arielle asked in complete happiness, "That was so much fun! I found at least 20 different dress robes. Can you believe that they actual have sea foam green and aquamarine dress robes now!" she asked carefully examining the silky designs embroidered on each dress.

"What is the difference between sea foam green and aquamarine?" Nicole asked tiredly.

"I am so glad you asked me that, Nicole! Come on, I'll explain it to you in The Three Broomsticks," Arielle happily started explaining.

"Oy vey," Nicole muttered under her breath as she started learning the 'fine and delicate balance between colors'.

---------------------

Sirius and Remus:

"Moony, for the **last** time! I don't care!" Sirius shouted at his friend as he sat in the soft, plushy sofa of the only bookstore in Hogsmede: Books R' Us.

"But Padfoot, this stuff is really interesting," he replied as he held in his hand a copy of '101 Facts Around the World' by Lisa Brightson.

"Did you know that--," Remus began.

"Let me stop you right there," Sirius interrupted cleaning off the top of his wand and then aiming it directly at Remus, "If this is going to have anything to do with any information you got from any book in this whole entire book store, you are going to regret it."

"Actually, I was just about to tell you that you had gum stuck to your shoe..." Remus said not bothering to look up from his book to see Sirius's reaction.

Looking down at his shoe to confirm this, Sirius glared at Remus and said, "Just another reason to leave this store."

Remus sighed sadly and asked in a voice that he hoped sounded reluctant to leave, "If you want to go to The Three Broomsticks..."

"Don't mind if I do!" Sirius said cheerfully, removing the gum from his shoe with a simple spell.

"...then you can go by yourself!" Remus said changing the tone of his voice immediately.

"Oh come on, Moony! Why would you want to spend this beautiful Saturday cooped inside?"

"Isn't that what you intend to do at The Three Broomsticks?" Remus queried with mock respect.

Sirius gave him a look and pushed him ahead of him, "Let's just leave. If I stay here any longer, I think I may actually get smarter."

"Don't worry mate. There's no chance of that happening to you," Remus declared as he left the room, waiting for Sirius to make sense of the insult that he had just said.

--------------------

James and Julie:

"Come on James! Just tell me what is wrong!" Julie coaxed as she saw that James was fidgeting uncomfortably.

"For the last time," he started yelling, then realized what he was doing and stopped, "There is nothing wrong. I mean it."

"Okay," she said a little hesitantly, "Well then I guess I can finish telling you what happened _after_ I got why Melissa was lying to her friends about her relationship..."

Even though Julie was still blabbing about the latest gossip, James was letting the information go through one ear and out the other. Besides, he had more important things do worry about.

_'Like what to do when she realizes who it was that she and Snape saw the other day...'_

He looked over to check, once again, whether or not Julie looked suspicious. But as he did, he noticed something he hadn't before. Though it was still early January and the temperature should have been near freezing, it was surprisingly mild. Most everyone outside had opted to wear jeans and short sleeve shirts and, if any, a light sweater instead of the heavy, warm robes worn inside the castle. Yet Julie had decided to wear a thick sweater underneath a slightly lighter jacket.

_'That is most likely because the dark mark has been branded onto her skin!'_ part of his mind screamed while another was struggling to come up with a different reason.

"So then I said to her well you can just about it because if you don't tell me, I am going to..." Julie talked on, James noticed as he started tuning her out again.

_'Okay, this is getting out of hand! I must be hallucinating. Lily isn't even coming here yet I see her a few feet ahead of me. Well, I better go up to her,'_ James thought as he was about to start walking faster. But, as he had been since he started dating Julie, he was restricted from going anywhere because of her.

Suddenly, the answer to his problem presented itself to him in the manner of a small coffee shop. The previous day, he had heard to third year girls talking longingly of taking a break from snogging their boyfriends and have a long talk: girl to girl.

_'Julie wants to talk?'_ James thought, _'Let her talk in here!' _

"I mean you can't just walk up to the store clerk there and ask to buy their best dress robe! I mean, obviously, it was reserved for Loretta as clearly indicated by the sign. But, no, it was just 'Julie can we buy this anytime soon because I have to--," Julie continued.

James quickly interjected, "Hey Julie, do you want to go in here and talk? It'll be a lot warmer. Then maybe you'll be warm enough to take off all of your sweaters... for once."

Julie was about to glare at him and respond with something clever and mean but caught herself in time and, instead, responded with, "Sure, sweetie!"

As they entered, the tiny bells above their head tinkled and James thought that he had actually seen her wince at the merry sound.

"Oh no! I forgot! I have to give on of my friends something; I'll just be a minute. Just find us a seat and I will rush back, okay?" James said, trying to sound as sincere and, dare he try, loving as he possibly could.

"Okay honey!" she muttered as she took the seat that was in the darkest corner of the whole, brightly lighted, homey little store.

Snape:

_'I know she is here somewhere! There is no way that she and Potter left this early,'_ Snape thought to himself as he looked around for any trace of Julie.

_'No matter,'_ he said to calm himself down_,'She will come crawling back to me once she sees that I have no problem with getting a few last minute death eaters to come and hex some sense into her.'_

Snape strolled as casually as he could around the large area without giving away the fact that at any minute, he could say the word and five death eaters would appear.

"Jackpot," Snape said quietly to himself as he pulled the top of his wand very slightly over the top of his pocket.

In front of him, he saw that Julie was walking into a small shop while James ran ahead of her. He saw while she was opening the door that the only occupants, besides Julie herself, were the store clerk and a boy stacking boxes in the open door of the storeroom.

Barely loud enough to be heard by no one but him, Snape said a small but complex spell and allowed the death eaters to appear beside him, invisible until Snape let their cover slip.

Discreetly, he entered the store, and whispered to the people next to him what exactly he wanted them to do. Then, he turned to at least a little while down the street and disapparated as quietly as was possible.

---------------------

Sirius, Remus, Arielle, and Nicole:

"See, isn't this so much better, Moony? Drinking butterbeer, relaxing, being loud without someone forcing you to be quiet?" Sirius asked Remus as he took another swig from his large, frothy cup that was nearly empty.

"I... guess," Remus said as he saw that Sirius was starting to act like himself again.

"So what is going on between you and Nicole?" Sirius asked as he saw that Remus didn't seem likely to start a conversation.

Remus nearly spit out his drink and turned the slightest shade of red, "What do you mean by that?"

"Aha! So you do like her!" Sirius said, slamming his cup down in triumph.

"I never said that!" Remus nearly screamed.

"Don't worry, Moony. I think she might like you. And why wouldn't she? You're a Marauder. Everyone likes us!" Sirius smiled.

"Oh," Remus said faking understanding, "So that is why Nicole hardly ever talks to me! I always thought the reason that she almost never even looks at me is because she i doesn't /i like me! Thank you, Oh great Sirius, for your much appreciated insight!"

"No problem!" Sirius said, not picking up on his obvious sarcasm.

"Remus! Sirius!" Nicole said as she plopped down next to Remus.

"Nicole! Arielle!" Remus said, imitating Nicole.

"Sirius!" Sirius yelled to himself.

Everyone gave him odd looks, and then started laughing.

"Is it just me or does Arielle seem a little drunk?" Remus whispered to Nicole as he saw Arielle yelling at the napkin for not wiping her chin better.

"So does Sirius," Nicole whispered back as they noticed him also scolding the napkin.

Arielle and Sirius seemed to be able to start talking naturally while Nicole and Remus sat there, awkwardly.

"Where have you been so far?" Remus asked Nicole.

"Oh just some boring clothing stores," she answered, "What about you?"

"Books R' Us. It is so great there! But Sirius wanted to come here," Remus replied.

"Well you got lucky! I spent at least thirty minutes discussing the difference between sea foam green and aquamarine with Arielle," Nicole said just loudly enough for Sirius to pick up on what they were saying.

"Hey!" he said, "There is a big difference! Once is slightly--"

"What was that?" Arielle asked terrified as she heard a loud, shrill squeak.

"I don't know but I think we should go see what happened," Remus said, trying to stay calm.

All four of them left the money they owed on the table and hurridly left from the store.

----------------------

Lily:

_'I am so pathetic! I need to snap /i out i of this right now! So what if Potter didn't try to come and find me? So what if no one that saw me cared that tears were nearly blinding me in their escape to come out before they got wiped away once again? So what if someone I know could be in grave danger because of two gits that need acceptance by a person that kills for fun so badly? So what if my friends abandoned me? So what if there is so much I need to talk about and no one to talk to about it? So what? I can deal with it... and if I can just keep telling myself that, I just might be able to believe it,'_ Lily thought bitterly as she sniffled.

A hand placed on her shoulder followed by heavy breathing startled Lily so much that she nearly screamed. That is, until she heard who it was that was about to speak.

"Evans! I finally caught up to you!" came the voice of James, "Listen, we really need to talk."

He lightly turned her around to face him. What he saw made him so sad that he had to restrain from trying to comfort her.

_'Remember what you are here for!'_ a stern voice from the back of his mind reminded him.

"Er, Evans? Are you alright?" he asked awkwardly.

Trying, and failing, to sound dignified, Lily hoarsely said, "Of course I am Potter."

He raised his eyebrows at her and scoffed but said nothing.

"Okay, so I'm not in the best mood. What difference does it make to you, anyway?" she asked turning her back on him and continuing her walk.

"Well actually, it makes no difference to me whatsoever. All that matters to me is that everyone at Hogwarts stays safe."

"So that has something to do with me because...?"

Once again, James stopped her and turned her back toward him, "Because you and I are the only two people who saw what happened yesterday. Come on, we need to figure out something! What if Snape and Julie are planning something and we could stop them?"

"You don't necessarily know that they were talking about doing something bad," Lily said, trying to sound reasonable and not even believing herself.

"Evans, we heard Snape say something about the 'Dark Lord'. If that isn't bad, what exactly do you think it is?"

"They could have been talking about anyone, Potter!"

James looked at her as if she was insane and then let her continue walking, "Oh yeah, there are tons of people going around and calling themselves the "Dark Lord'. You are making perfect sense, Evans. How could I even i think /i that what they are doing is wrong?"

"Okay, so what do you propose that we do?"

"Well, I was thinking that--"

Seemingly from out of nowhere, a loud shriek erupted. Without thinking about what she was doing, Lily grasped James's hand.

"Potter," she said her voice faint, "What was that?"

"I- I think the answer is right behind us, Evans," James said as they both turned and faced the direction that they had just come from.

Suddenly, there was mass pandemonium everywhere as people from every shop and store came running out in frenzy.

By the time that James and Lily had evacuated all of the students, since they were the heads and in charge of their safety, a thick fog had appeared.

Another set of shrill shrieks echoed into the nearly deserted area.

Together, the two tried to see through the haze surrounding them. All of a sudden, though, James could no longer feel Lily's hand on his.

"Evans!" he called out as loud as he could, "EVANS! **LILY**!"

But it was all to no avail because Lily was gone.


	7. Confusion

"No, Evans. No, Lily..." James trailed off helplessly, his voice choked with emotion. Struggling to hold back tears, he calmed himself down enough to try and get a bearing on his surroundings.

Slowly but surely, the fog was beginning to lift, giving James a slight bit more hope. James wasn't completely sure but he thought that he was still in Hogsmede and that he hadn't gone anywhere after the attack.

Through the dim light of the late afternoon haze, James could vaguely make out the shapes of a few buildings.

"Okay, okay, this is good, James. Now, if you can just make out the names one those buildings, you're set," James said out loud in a manner of straightening out his thoughts.

Before he could focus his attention on anything other than the pain radiating throughout his body, he saw a large pensieve in front of him. Suddenly, he started to move closer and closer toward it. He felt as though some force was pulling him, no matter how hard he struggled.

With a final lurch, he landed head first into a memory that he was sure wasn't his. Difficult though it was he remembered someone, whose name he couldn't recall, had told him to never go into a "UM", 'unidentified memory'.

Terror struck through his body, but he got up, hoping that the memory might give him some clue as to what was going on.

He tried to figure out where it was that he had landed, and looked around himself in confusion. Everything around him was bathed in a weak, yellow light that just barely allowed him to make sure he didn't bump into anything. The rom was stuffed to bursting and there was hardly any space at all to move about, causing him to be glad that there was at least the weak light for him to be able to see. There was a very small chair that he decided to sit in that was decorated with bright sequins and ribbons, which didn't fit in with the rest of the drab, depressing looking surroundings.

Soon, the confusion and fear that was enveloping him began turning to boredom. There was nothing in sight, nor was there anyone that could explain, what exactly it was that had happened and caused the attack.

But when he tried to lurch himself out of the memory, as he had done several times before with a pensieve, he found that he couldn't.

Suddenly, a new fear took place in James's mind._ 'Am I... stuck?'_

Seconds turned to minutes, minutes turned to hours, and James thought he was turning insane. He felt as if every happy moment, every good feeling, and every good times he had were being taken away and instead, being filled with an empty, sad feeling. With every tick of his watch, he was getting more and more depressed and cared less and less about getting out of the room.

After what seemed like an eternity, his body started to pull out of the room that he had been imprisoned in for so long. His body ached from being stuck in the tiny room in the memory and his head ached from all of the mental strain. He was violently thrown from the large bowl and landed with a loud 'crack' on his left arm.

The last thought that he remembered before the world blanked out around him was _'I still haven't found Lily.'_

Because of his poor vision, the first thing that James saw when he woke up was a blurred image of someone with dark, messy hair that was pacing back and forth next to his bed.

"James!" another figure next to him said.

"Whaa--," came the slurred reply. Wincing in pain at moving his not-long-ago-broken-arm, he fumbled around for his glasses on the table placed beside him for a few minutes, found them, and suddenly, found himself next to an excited Sirius.

"He's awake! Moony, Wormtail: he's awake!" Sirius shouted happily, causing an angry Madame Pomfrey to come rushing of her office.

"Quiet, Mr. Black, before you wake Potter up!" she said before seeing the confused but awake James in the bed.

"Where is Li--Evans?" James asked his friends.

"You mean you, uh, you don't remember? You don't recall what happened to her?" Remus said gulping down a lump in his throat.

"What happened to her, Moony?" James asked sitting up, instantly alert with a terrified expression on his face.

"What is the last thing you remember Mr. Potter?" Madame Pomfrey asked as she gently pushed him back down on to his bed, while his friends stood around him with anxiety clear on their faces.

"Lily and I were patrolling the halls yesterday and suddenly we heard--," James was about to blurt out what happened, but decided to keep it to himself.

"And then what?" Peter prodded.

"That's all I remember," James lied.

"A few more days of rest should bring your memory back to normal. I've already fixed up your broken arm, but it might hurt you for a day or two. Just drink this," Madame Pomfrey informed James as she indicated a large glass full of vile looking liquid, "And sleep." She softly set down a bottle of dreamless sleeping potion next to the glass.

"My memory is fine! And my arm doesn't hurt anymore. I just want to know what happened to Lily!" James exclaimed.

Madame Pomfrey game him a stern look and shook her head.

"You are to stay in bed and rest until I say that you are well enough to be told the events of what happened the day you were at Hogsmede," she said with an end-of-conversation-look.

With that, she ushered his friends out of the room and into the hallway while James tried to sort out what had happened.

_'Did I get a chance to talk to Lily after what happened last night? Wait, was that even last night? How long have I been here? And where is Lily, anyway?'_

But before he could get a chance to think about it much more, Madame Pomfrey came back into his room and ordered him to sleep.

With a feeling of confusion, James slumped down in the unfamiliar bed and tried to fall asleep.

_'I guess I will just have to talk to Lily later. After all, she shouldn't be too hard too track down...'_

"Nicole! NICOLE!" Arielle screamed at the top of her lungs.

"What? What is? What happened? Are you alright?" Nicole asked running out of the bathroom, half of her hair combed, the other half messy.

"I was just scared that you were gone too," Arielle said with tears running down her face. After the two girls had learned about what had happened to Lily at Hogsmede, they had been extra cautious and much more emotional. She was, after all, their best friend, and no one seemed to know, or apparently care, where she was.

"Don't worry, Arielle. I promise you we'll find her. She couldn't have gotten too far. I mean this is Lily we are talking about. She is smart and more than able to take care of herself," Nicole consoled.

"You don't understand Nicole! Dumbledore told us that there were death eaters. **Death eaters** Nicole! She could be lying dead in the street for all we know! So don't just stand there looking as if you don't care what happens to her and tell me that she is alright!" Arielle shouted.

Nicole flinched at Arielle's harsh words, but then realized how she must feeling much worse than Nicole herself as she had only known her for two years. Knowing that if she talked, she might make Arielle feel worse, Nicole only walked over to her bed and sat down next to her. For a few minutes, they sat together on Arielle's bed, crying, picturing in fright the terrible things that could have happened to their best friend.

Arielle's voice came out hoarse from crying, "We should really be getting to class now. We're already ten minutes late."

Nicole nodded as she wiped away her tears and they both left the room with frightening thoughts still in their minds.

"Honestly, I feel fine!" James argued with Madame Pomfrey as she tried to force him back into his bed.

"You are _not_ leaving! At least not on my watch!" she protested.

"Then look away," Sirius muttered, rolling his frustrated blue-gray eyes.

"What was that, Mr. Black?" she questioned angrily.

"Nothing," he said, afraid by the look in her eyes.

"Shouldn't I at least see if I am okay? Then if I'm not, I'll come back," James said with no intention at all of coming back. After all, James knew that the sooner he was let out from the hospital wing, the sooner he would figure out what was happening.

"Fine," she said reluctantly.

_'Finally!'_ James cried in his mind_, 'Twenty minutes of convincing is definitely worth the freedom!'_

Once the four Marauders were out of the hospital, James's friends began explaining what had happened to him, although Madame Pomfrey had told them not to.

Sirius and Remus started explaining what they had done and how they had met up with Arielle and Nicole after Peter told him what had happened while everyone was at Hogsmede. Remus also filled him in about how they (James and Lily) had stayed in Hogsmede after everyone else had left.

"...so then Sirius and Remus came running toward Dumbledore's office, just when I was making my way down to the kitchens. I decided to join them and, on our way, they told me what happened. As soon as we got into Dumbledore's office, they explained to him what they had just explained to me. With a serious look on his face, he got up and told us to inform all of the teachers what had happened. Since you and Lily were both at Hogsmede, he told us that it was our job to tell the students that had stayed behind to remain in their dorms. The next thing I know, I see you being levitated in by Flitwick who was bringing you to the hospital wing. None of the teachers were talking about what happened which caused everyone to be even more terrified," Peter finished.

James's mind was reeling. After he had heard what happened to Lily, he had only taken in a few bits of information. All he could think about was what could have happened to her, where she was, and whether the whole thing was his fault or not.

_'Why didn't they taken me instead? Where is she now? How come no one is doing anything about it? Why does everything have to be so confusing? I need to talk to Dumbledore!'_

"Prongs? Mate, where are you going?" Sirius called after James as he saw that he was walking down the hallway.

_'You don't have time for this!'_ James's mind shouted at him when he was about to turn around and answer Sirius_, 'Lily could be anywhere!'_

James broke into a sprint as he turned all of the corners to where he knew he would find the quickest route to his dorm.

Once he reached the Fat Lady's Portrait, he muttered the password as quickly as he could ( 'Flibbertigibbet'), and ran up the stairs to his room.

He hurriedly threw open the door and roughly opened the trunk at the end of his bed. Finding what he needed, he pulled out his invisibility cloak and the Marauder's Map. James knew that at various times, Dumbledore was not in his office when he needed him. Therefore, he wanted to check before he wasted his time in going to his office.

"I solemnly swear I am up to no good," James murmured as he rolled open the seemingly blank piece of parchment.

Suddenly, long lines of ink and little black dots appeared on the parchment in James's hand. His eyes instinctively wandered up to Dumbledore's office, and he was greatly annoyed to see that he wasn't there.

"Well, what now? There has to be something more I can do to help Lily!" James said aloud to himself, as he had been doing increasingly more lately.

James stood there a while thinking and staring at the map, when he realized who he _could _ask even though Dumbledore wasn't there.

"Mischief managed," he said, jumping up quickly, and stuffing the now blank parchment into his pocket.

James ran down the stairs, out of the common room, through the portrait hole, down several flights of stairs, across many classrooms, through many hallways, past numerous amounts of doors, and finally ended up in front of McGonagall's office.

He began knocking on the door, trying not to be too noisy, and then advanced to banging on the door when no one arrived.

"Mr. Potter!" McGonagall said as she opened the door to a panting, flushed James.

"Professor, I need to talk to you about something important," James explained, still slightly out of breath.

"Apparently," she said, seeing the state he was in, "Come in, then."

James entered the room that he had been in so many times before, for various different reasons, most commonly because he was in some type of trouble. The fireplace was crackling loudly as James took a seat on soft red and gold chair, much like the kind in Dumbledore's office.

"Alright then, Potter, what is it that you came to talk to me about?" McGonagall inquired as she looked at James through the glasses that she were on the bridge of her nose.

"I need to talk to you about what happened at Hogsmede today," James said, afraid that McGonagall would not want to discuss this. When he saw that she was not stopping him, he kept talking, "I want to know where Lily went. Everyone told me about what else happened but it seems as if no one knows where she is. Is she okay? Did something bad happen to her? Is anyone looking for her?" James said all of this very quickly, but McGonagall somehow managed to catch every word.

"Mr. Potter, I need you to calm down right now so that I can explain to you what happened," McGonagall told him, although she didn't sound as stern as she usually did.

As McGonagall started to explain, James realized that she knew no more than he himself did. He felt anger bubbling inside of him and he let his mind wander.

James shrank down into his seat in despair. As soon as McGonagall had finished explaining, he realized that he was never going to find Lily. None of the teachers or Dumbledore appeared to be looking for her and that was something he knew he could never achieve on his own. He was never going to be able to tell her that he never really stopped loving her...

"AHH!" James yelled in frustration as he crumpled what seemed like the hundredth piece of parchment and tossed it into the overflowing garbage bin. What he was trying to accomplish, he hadn't told anyone and he wasn't planning to. Although he realized there wasn't much hope, he was trying as hard as possible to come up with possible locations of Lily's whereabouts. He knew it was a bad idea and he knew that It seemed that as soon as he wrote down a location, though, that he would find it a ridiculous idea and would throw it away.

"Prongs, calm down. You don't have to try and do everything by yourself. Dumbledore will find Lily," Remus soothed.

"Dumbledore is not looking for Lily! He is not even trying to! And I don't seem to see anyone else trying to help the situation," James shouted.

"Prongs, mate. If you scream one more time, I think my ears might burst from the strain," Sirius joked trying to lighten the mood.

James rolled his eyes and glared at Sirius, and then turned around and stormed out of the common room.

"I think you crossed the line there, Padfoot," Remus said, sighing.

"Everything seems to make him mad lately. It's as if I don't even know my own best mate," Sirius grumbled as he too got up angrily. With a quick wave of his wand and a few mutterings, he managed to get all of his books back in to his backpack and stomp up the stairs to his room at the same time.

_'One last time and then I'll go to sleep,'_ James told himself as he sleepily looked at the watch on his wrist.

So far, he had occupied the Room of Requirement for a total of five hours and had accomplished nothing to find out where Lily could have gone.

He took what he promised himself would be the final plunge into the penseive in front of him where he stored the memory of the eventful trip to Hogsmede, and hoped for the best.

_... "Evans, we heard Snape say something about the 'Dark Lord'. If that isn't bad, what exactly do you think it is?"_

_"They could have been talking about anyone, Potter!"_

_James looked at her as if she was insane and then let her continue walking, "Oh yeah, there are tons of people going around and calling themselves the "Dark Lord'. You are making perfect sense, Evans. How could I even_ think _that what they are doing is wrong?"_

_"Okay, so what do you propose that we do?"_

_"Well, I was thinking that--"_

_Seemingly from out of nowhere, a loud shriek erupted. Without thinking about what she was doing, Lily grasped James's hand._

_"Potter," she said her voice faint, "What was that?"_

_"I- I think the answer is right behind us, Evans," James said as they both turned and faced the direction that they had just come from._

_James saw his face turn fearful and noticed his grip on Lily's hand tightened and saw himself pushing her behind him, hoping that would help keep Lily safe._

_Sorrow filled his heart as he saw Lily acting brave and taking her wand out._

'And now comes the part where Lily and I are going to send all of the students out of the area and a thick fog is going to prevent me from seeing where Lily goes. I wish there was something else that I could see that could help me see what is going on! There must be something that I'm missing!' _James thought to himself as he watched his memory repeat the part where Lily starts yelling out orders._

'Wait a minute! What is that?' _James questioned to himself as he snapped out of his weariness to focus on what he had previously been missing. On his right he saw a tiny glimpse of someone wearing long black robes and had a long, hooked nose, right before the fog started rolling in. He pushed his way through the fog as best he could and tried to follow the figure instead of watching the rest of the scene._

_Unfortunately, he couldn't go too much farther due to the fact that the person in the robe wasn't his main focus in the memory. What he did realize, however, was that instead of trying to track down one of the teachers to help him, he should interrogate Snape. _

_'Now all I have to do is start questioning Snape and I'll be one step closer to finding Lily!'_ James thought excitedly, leaping out of his comfortable spot on the sofa to go to the Slytherin dorms.

James quietly started creeping down the hallways toward where he knew Snape's common room would be. He knew that all of the teachers would be asleep by now and Flich's rounds had ended twenty minutes ago, but he still felt as though he should be careful to not make noise.

After many twists and turns, he finally got to his destination. With a slight groan, he realized that he wouldn't be able to open the door without the password.

_'Wait a minute; I'm the head of this school. I can change the password if I want to. But if I don't have a good reason, McGonagall will make sure that I'll get in trouble. Oh well, I'm sure I can think of something to tell her before she finds out tomorrow,'_ James told himself as he thought of a suitable password. He couldn't help but think that Snape had to know the answer to what happened. Seeing that the man in the portrait was asleep, he pulled his invisibility cloak off, knowing that he would get in trouble if he had seen him with it.

Not knowing how exactly to wake the man up, he cleared his throat loudly, hoping to get his attention. When he noticed that the man had woken up, he stepped forward.

"Er, I decided that I'm going to change the password," James said awkwardly to the portrait in front of him.

"Only Slughorn and Dumbledore can change the password," the portrait said, spitting the words out as if they would soil his tongue, "And just who exactly are you, anyway?"

"Well, for your information, _I_ am the head boy," he said standing up as tall as he could to try and make himself look more intimidating.

"What is your reason for changing the password?" the portrait asked not changing the tone of his voice at all.

"Too many people from other houses know the password," James quickly lied.

The portrait gave him a questioning look but allowed him to change the password once he saw the head's badge glistening on his robes.

James invented a new password and entered the large room. Through the dim lighting, he managed to make out parts of his surroundings. Just as the Gryffindor common room had a red and gold theme, the Slytherin common room had a silver and green theme. The common room, however, didn't look nearly as comfortable as Gryffindor one and there were a lot less couches. His thoughts were soon interrupted by an unexpected voice.

"What took you so long Potter? I would have expected you to come a long time ago," Snape said casually as he turned to face James, who was still standing in the doorway.

"How did you know I was coming?" he asked, astounded.

"I have my reasons," he said changing the subject back and sneering at him, "But I expect the reason you came here was to find out where the mudblood is, didn't you?"

"Don't you dare call her a--- ," James said angrily as he drew out his wand, but was cut off by Snape.

"Don't bother Potter," Snape said, as he too drew out his wand and pointed it toward him, "Believe it or not, I am trying to help you."

"Help me! You took Lily away and you nearly killed a lot of innocent people at Hogsmede! And, now, you're threatening me with you wand. Oh yeah, you can't get much more helpful than that can you, now?" James yelled, forgetting that he was trying to stay quiet. There was a long pause before either of them spoke again.

"Why did you take her?" James asked after a moment, "Why her and not me?"

"Oh you'll find out very soon," Snape said turning to him with an evil look on his face.

Then suddenly, without a moment's notice, the world blacked out around James.


	8. Prisoners Of War

A/N: Wow, this is a really long chapter. I thought that the sixth chapter was the longest, but I just couldn't i> stop /i> writing this one. I hope this wasn't too long of a wait. I'm not too fond of the end at all, but I think the rest is okay. So, please review, whether you hate it, like it, love it, or whatever else you feel about this chapter. I hope you like it! D  
By the way, this is 19 pages long! )

* * *

Lily woke up when she suddenly felt a bright light filling up the room she was sleeping in. Slowly, her eyes opened and, immediately, a massive headache overtook her. On top of all of the pain she was encountering at the moment, she had no memory of where she was or why she was there and she had a terrible feeling that something was wrong. She guessed, because there was a Hogsmede trip the night before, she had a late night, passed out on her bed, and her roommates decided not to wake her up, leaving her laying there, exhausted. But nothing she could have done would have made her feel as horrible as she did at that moment.

With a start, she looked around herself in shock and confusion, realizing that something was amiss. Rather than being in her own bed, in her own room, she was sleeping on a cot in a room that she had never been in or seen before.

Terrified, she searched around for her wand, hoping that she would think of some sort of spell to help her figure out what was going on. Even though she didn't know what was happening, she still had a faint memory of the night before, and remembered holding someone's hand that made her feel safe and warm right before she blanked out. For the moment, that feeling of safety and warmth was the only thing she could cling to, and she did so, desperately as she continued her search for her wand.

She looked up, once more terrified, when she realized that she had just heard someone chuckle. The sight she saw scared her so much that she was not even able to scream. There was a tall man standing in the doorway looking smug and laughing at her. But what scared her most was that on his left arm, there was a tattoo-like mark that looked like a snake and seemed to have been branded there. Instantly, she recognized it as the 'Dark Mark' that all of the newspapers had been warning wizards to watch out for.

Involuntarily, she flinched back on to the wall behind her and reached toward the right pocket of her robe, where she almost always placed her wand. Noticing the lack of the wooden rod, she started to inch farther and farther toward the wall until her back was completely covered by it.

The man, though, hadn't moved much, other than to shift his weight from one foot to another. But when he saw her notice him and move back, he began to speak.

"What are you looking at you filthy **mudblood**?" he asked in a harsh and cruel voice.

Lily, although fully able to speak again and willing to yell at the man for being rude, decided not to speak in an attempt to stay out of trouble.

"Well, are you going to talk or are you too stupid?" he asked narrowing his eyes and moving closer to the cot she was sitting on.

Once again, though, Lily chose not to speak. Although, now, she hoped that there wouldn't be a punishment for i not /i talking.

"I should have known that a mudblood like you wouldn't be able to talk," the man said to her.

Lily was incredibly confused. She didn't have the strength or ability to try and figure out where she was or where her wand was while the man was still in the room. She decided that since the man didn't know whether or not she could speak, she could use it to her advantage. If she kept quiet, he wouldn't be able to get anything out of her. He could, however, torture her until she told him, but that was a thought that Lily immediately forced out of her mind.

She tried to make herself look as confused and afraid as she possibly could which wasn't particularly hard, considering how confused and scared she already was.

With a sudden snap of attention, she realized that the man had started speaking to her once again, and she listened to him while trying to make it seem as though she didn't understand.

"...searching for you. But what do you care? I bet you don't even know who is out there looking for you," he said, glaring at her coldly.

Lily just continued to give him the same blank stare that she had managed to contain for the last fifteen minutes or so of her conscious thought.

He too, stared at her, but he was searching her face to look for traces of understanding.

"Stupid mudblood. Why should I waste my time watching over you? You're too dumb to do anything, I'm sure. And you don't even have a wand. I'm getting someone else to do this brainless job," the Death Eater said as he got up and stormed out of the room.

As soon he was out of the room and slammed the door, rather loudly in Lily's opinion, she felt as if she were free to think through what had happened.

_'But first, I have to figure out where I am,'_ Lily told herself as she got up and walked around the room.

She slowly and cautiously walked toward the door, careful to make as little sound as possible as she walked across the hard, stone floor, she slightly pulled the door open.

_'Please don't squeak, please don't squeak,'_ Lily hoped as she began to slowly push the door further outward.

Once there was a slit about the size of her eye between the door and the wall, she put her eye to it and peered out.

Terrifed, she pulled the door shut, without making any noise in the process and ran back to her cot. Outside of her door, she had seen a room that was loud and contained many Death Eaters. And sitting in a seat in the middle of all of those that were in the room was a masked and hooded figure that they all seemed to be idolizing. A chill went up her spine when she heard him speak and realized who it was that was sitting in the large chair. It was none other than Voldemort.

'Okay, it is okay. Everything will turn out alright. Nothing's going to happen to me...,' Lily thought trying to comfort herself but ending up making herself even more scared.

_'All I have to do is figure out where I am, how I got here, and how I'm getting out. Yeah, that's all. Nothing much...'_

But that annoying voice in the back of her head that never left her alone piped up, _'Oh right, Lily. There is nothing to be afraid of; just a couple dozen_ Death Eaters _and_ Voldemort. _It's nothing that you can't handle right? You can beat them all in your sleep.'_

_'No!'_ Lily told herself fiercely_, 'I just have to stay calm figure out what happened.'_

She then sat there, pulling out the fibers of the itchy cot as she thought, and began to figure out what exactly had happened. There were only bits and pieces of what happened that she could figure out. And those few things weren't very important, in her opinion. For one, she realized that she had talked to James but she couldn't remember what exactly they had been discussing. Another thing she remembered was that she hadn't had a chance to go into The Three Broomsticks.

She was so frustrated at herself for not remembering anything significant that she nearly screamed in anger when she suddenly remembered where she was sitting.

_'I have to stay calm!'_ she mentally yelled at herself, trying to do what she was telling herself to do.

Exhausted, she fell back on to the rough pillow on the itchy cot and closed her eyes. Although she wasn't planning on falling asleep, she did. And, through her dream, she remembered what happened just before she was taken away from Hogsmede, which, for some _'odd'_ reason, was nearly exactly what James had remembered as well.

... _"Evans, we heard Snape say something about the 'Dark Lord'. If that isn't bad, what exactly do you think it is?"_

_"They could have been talking about anyone, Potter!"_

_James looked at her as if she was insane and then let her continue walking, "Oh yeah, there are tons of people going around and calling themselves the "Dark Lord'. You are making perfect sense, Evans. How could I even_ think _that what they are doing is wrong?"_

_"Okay, so what do you propose that we do?"_

_"Well, I was thinking that--"_

_Seemingly from out of nowhere, a loud shriek erupted. Without thinking about what she was doing, Lily grasped James's hand._

_"Potter," she said her voice faint, "What was that?"_

_"I- I think the answer is right behind us, Evans," James said as they both turned and faced the direction that they had just come from._

_Lily saw James's face turn fearful and noticed his grip on her tighten. She then saw how James pushed her behind him, probably trying to protect her, and remembered how safe she had felt behind him._

_She felt a pang in her stomach when she saw herself acting brave and taking her wand out, remembering that she had thought that she didn't need James's protection._

'And now comes the part where James and I are going to send all of the students out of the area and a thick fog is going to prevent me from seeing where James goes,' _Lily thought, thinking almost exactly what James had thought when he was reviewing his memory time after time._

_Suddenly, Lily saw something that she had a hard time believing. Lily was surprised to see Julie Edmonds at the scene of the crime. For some reason though, she saw that she looked as though to be in a lot of pain._

'What is going on here? Is Julie the girl that everyone heard screaming? That doesn't make any sense!' _Lily questioned herself._

_It was then that she realized what that the sooner she could find Julie, the sooner that she could start getting some answers._

_The only question now, though, was how to get out of somewhere that, to her, seemed to be nowhere she had ever been before._

After a few more minutes of dreamless sleep, she woke up, and realized that she had been sleeping for a long time. It was already dark outside, which was the only thing that she knew for sure. The light that had been bursting through the tiny window at the top left side of her room was now completely gone.

Hoping that no one would come into the room to check on her, Lily attempted to move the cot away from the wall and toward the window. After a few minutes of groaning and pushing, Lily successfully pushed the small, but heavy cot underneath the window. At least, what she hoped was the window, as she couldn't see anything because of the amount of darkness.

She then got on top of it and stretched her arms up as high as they would go. Unfortunately, she was still too short to reach up to the window. With one powerful jump, she managed to grasp onto the ledge. Using all of the strength she had in her arms, she was able to just barely get her eyes to the very bottom of the window.

Once Lily saw what was through the window, for what seemed like the umpteenth time, she nearly screamed out in terror.

_'What kind of sick person would want to live_ here _of all places?'_ Lily thought to herself.

"Alright, I will!" came a man's voice from right outside of the door.

_'Oh no! No, no, no, no, no!'_ Lily thought_, 'There is no way that I can get this thing back to the wall before he gets back in here!'_

Hoping with all her heart that he wouldn't come in for at least a few minutes, Lily began to shove the cot as quickly as she could back to its original spot.

With a sense of terror, that never quite seemed to go away, she saw the doorknob start to turn and the door began to open slowly.

But thankfully, she heard what, at the moment, was the sweetest sound she could have heard.

"If you don't hurry up and get over here right now, you lazy old coot, I'm going to tell Lucius the real reason that Narcissa was at---," a different voice started.

"Shut up!" he half whispered, half yelled.

After another few, seemingly useless minutes of incredibly difficult effort, Lily had pushed the cot back to its own spot. She then proceeded to fall backward on to the uncomfortable and itchy spot and attempt to sort out her thoughts.

_'Who in their right mind would get a spot in a graveyard? Oh right, Voldemort would. But why do I have the feeling that I've been here before?'_ Lily thought, determined to figure out what was going on.

But after what seemed to her as many hours, she decided to label the cause hopeless and closed her eyes, hoping to at least find a time to sleep. She was hoping that maybe her dreams would allow her to stumble onto another lost memory. After all, she had nothing to lose and, she thought it would be safer to be asleep the next time the man came into check on her than to be awake and afraid.

--------------------

Although the frigid night air was stinging her cheeks and hands, Nicole hardly noticed. The only thing she could think about was how happy she felt walking along side Remus as the two made their way along the front of the school.

Winter was approaching fast and only a few fall leaves remained on the ground, as if waiting to be crunched. A gust of cold air flew by and Nicole, remembering how much Lily loved the fall and winter weather at Hogwarts, immediately started worrying about her again.

"Remus?" Nicole asked.

"Mmm?" Remus responded.

"Do you really think that Lily is going to be okay? I mean, I _know_ that Dumbledore said not to worry about it, but I still feel as if I shouldn't be happy until I'm sure that Lily is alright and taken care of. Instead of answering my questions, everyone I ask keeps avoiding them and console me as if I don't have a right to know what is going on with my friend," Nicole half started to yell to Remus, stopping her slow walk and staring above her.

Remus inwardly sighed_, 'The one time I am alone with her when we both seem to be happy, the topic of Lily just has to come up.'_

Regardless of how he felt, he knew that Nicole was still healing from what happened, "I think the reason that no one is answering your questions is that they don't know the answers, either. I wish I could tell you that Lily will be alright, but I can't. I don't know what is going to happen to her and there is no way to find out but to figure it out. And at the moment, there's not much we have to go off of.

Nicole stared at Remus and felt tears forming in her eyes. _'It's not fair that I should get to be happy and spend time with Remus while poor Lily is Merlin-knows-where, scared to death with no one there to comfort her. I don't deserve to have Remus here, and Lily shouldn't have to be trapped away. She didn't do anything wrong!'_

Without thinking through was she was about to do, Nicole engulfed Remus in a tight hug and began to cry as though she had never cried before.

_'Poor Nicole, she shouldn't have to go through this kind of pain. Something has to be done. We're all going to have to help James find Lily before it's too late,'_ Remus thought.

"I know you don't want anyone to comfort you, but would you mind, just this once?" Remus asked, smiling down at Nicole's tearstained face as he gently pulled her away.

"Oh, Remus," Nicole said, giving him what would have been a smile had she not been so sad.

Together Remus and Nicole walked back to the large castle, both hoping that Lily would soon be safe, and thinking of ways to get her back.

--------------------

"This just doesn't make sense! It's not like James to do this kind of thing," Sirius muttered.

"I know what you mean. He would have at least left us a note to tell us where he was going to be before he left for so many hours like that," Arielle said.

"Are you _sure_ that you didn't see him at dinner?" Sirius questioned Arielle.

"No, Sirius," Arielle said, slightly irritated by Sirius's attitude, "As I have told you for the last _hundred_ times, I did not see James at dinner."

Sirius, noticing the look of annoyance on Arielle's face, felt even worse, "Look, I'm sorry. It's just that, after this whole kidnapping thing with Lily, I've been pretty paranoid. And you know how much James loves Lily. I keep thinking he's going to go after her. I mean, what if he already did and he got caught by some Death Eater? He's like a brother to me. I can't let anything happen to him."

Arielle sighed, and stroked his hand, "Don't worry," she joked, "Not even _James_ is stupid enough to do that without telling anyone, and definitely not without telling you."

Sirius smiled which was something that he hadn't been able to do for the past few hours because of his constant worrying, and felt a little better.

Arielle looked over Sirius's shoulder at the large grandfather clock that was placed directly above the fireplace.

"Oh my gosh, it is one in the morning and Nicole and Remus are still not back? I always thought that Nicole would do something like this," Arielle said, smiling proudly.

"Yeah, I wonder where those two are," Sirius said.

After a little bit of silence, Sirius and Arielle looked at each other, scared.

"You don't think that something happened to them, do you?" Arielle asked Sirius, hoping that he wouldn't agree with her.

"I would lie, but I do think something happened," Sirius said, once again afraid for the safety of his friends.

"I'm sure they are fine. They are probably just sitting outside somewhere... I hope," Arielle said before she and Sirius both got up and started sprinting out into the corridors.

"Thank you so much, Remus," Nicole said as the two of them quietly made their way up the stairs to the seventh floor where the Gryffindor common room was located, "I honestly don't know what I would do without you."

Remus, thankful that it was dark, blushed and answered, "Don't mention it."

The couple continued to head toward the common room. Thankfully, they hadn't heard anyone else around the area, and wouldn't get into any trouble for being out after hours.

Then suddenly, they heard footsteps, and very loud ones, as if whoever was behind them was running.

"Remus! Nicole!" Remus heard the voice of Sirius whisper angrily, wagging his fingers accusingly at both of them.

"Where have you guys been? We've been worried sick about you," Arielle added sternly, her hands placed on her hips.

As soon as the two realized what they had been doing, they got out of their odd positions and began to walk with Remus and Nicole toward the Fat Lady's Portrait which, thankfully, was only a few feet away by that time.

"Details tomorrow missy," Arielle said in a sing-song voice, loudly enough for only Nicole to hear.

"I want to know exactly what happened," Sirius muttered, heard only by Remus.

Remus, Sirius, Arielle, and Nicole all muttered the password, pushed the door open, and headed up the stairs to their respective dorms.

--------------------

All he felt was pain. Pain worse than anything he ever thought was possible. Every bone in his body felt as if it was broken and he could hardly move a finger without hurting himself somehow. It was cold, wet, and James was scared beyond belief. Every other second, a drop of water would fall onto his head, causing him to shiver. His legs were pulled up to his chest and his arms were wrapped protectively around them. Regardless of how warm he tried to make himself feel, he was still freezing.

What he felt was even worse was that he didn't know where he was. There wasn't a single thing around him that could help him figure it out. All he could gather from his surroundings was that he was in a rather large cave. Helplessly, he stood up and decided to search around for something that would make some sense to him.

After about thirty minutes of searching, he realized that he was stuck in the cave, with little to no hopes of ever getting out. Once again, he plopped down onto the cold, hard cave floor and began blowing his hands in an effort to warm himself up a little.

"This is ridiculous! I am not just going to sit here and admit defeat!" James yelled aloud, frustrated at being so powerless. He jumped up from his uncomfortable position and stuffed his hands into his pockets, wishing his wand would be in there.

"That slimy git, Snape. This is his fault!" James roared, anger taking over, "If it wasn't for him, none of this would have happened. I would have been in the common room with my friends, all of us safe, including Evans. But no, he had to go and, and, and do THIS!"

Getting much of his strength together, he kicked at the rock walls, hard, causing more damage to his foot than to the rock.

"What ever happened to 'believe it or not, I'm trying to help you'?" James mimicked Snape's voice, as he limped around for a few seconds.

"There has to be a way out. After all, I came in here so there has to be some sort of opening around here," James reasoned out, trying to regain his calm.

He leaned back and allowed himself to support himself against the rock while he thought.

"Ow," he muttered, rubbing a spot around his stomach, through his robes. As he did this, he felt a hard object against his shirt.

Confused he lifted his robe a bit to reveal a glittering object. Although he was wishing for his wand to be sitting there, he was relieved to see that Snape had not thought to search his robes for this.

He pulled out a small mirror, about the size of his face, and began talking, "Sirius Black!" James yelled into the glass, "Sirius, you answer me right this second. You better have this on you! Sirius! Padfoot! I'm not just joking around here right now. I'm in trouble. I'm trapped someplace and I don't know where it is, so I need your help! **Sirius**!"

After a few seconds, James grew anxious. What if Sirius did not have the two-way mirror with him? What someone had heard his screaming and it fell into the wrong hands? While these questions were swirling around his mind, he didn't hear the voice of his best friend answer.

"Prongs, mate? Are you still there? What's wrong? **James**!" Sirius bellowed.

James immediately snapped out of his thoughts at the sound of Sirius's yell.

"Sirius! Sirius!" James said, tears threatening to fall from his eyes, "Something is wrong. I don't know what happened but I know that Lily is in dire trouble. And so am I. Snape trapped me in this cave and I don't know what's going on. You've got to help me. Fill Remus and Peter in on this too, they need to know." James said all of this very quickly and his voice was shaky, due to the tears.

Sirius, however, understood everything that his friend told him, "I'm with Remus and Peter right now, Prongs. They already heard everything you said."

"Here's what I need you to do. Get the Marauder's Map out of my trunk and see if you can spot me on it. If you can, then come over here, wherever here is, and get me out. But be extremely careful when you do. I'm pretty sure that Snape is either right outside wherever I am being held captive, or else wandering around the castle, searching for you, Lily, or me."

"What if you aren't on the map?" James heard Peter's timid voice ask.

"I don't know..." James's voice trailed off, helplessly.

"Take the mirror and move it around the area that you are in. We have to be able to see where you are if we want to save you. We might even be able to recognize the place you're at," Remus told James.

James doing as he was told, panned the mirror around his surroundings.

"It... it seems familiar to me, for some reason," Remus muttered, sounding confused.

"Keep thinking on it, Moony," Sirius said, eagerly.

After a few minutes of hard thinking, Remus snapped his fingers and a weary smile plastered itself onto his face.

"I've been there before!" Remus said.

"What do you mean by you've been there before?" Sirius asked Remus, his head cocked to the side.

"Well, once, back in fifth year when I first became a prefect, Dumbledore told me to help Hagrid with the detentions. So I took a few second year students around that area, telling them what to do while Hagrid went the other way. Since I was supposed to be watching them, I decided to sit down somewhere nearby. I found that cave and sat down right at the opening of it," Remus explained.

"So there _is_ an opening. Do you know how to get me out of here Moony?" James asked, hopefully.

"Not just by looking around you because the whole cave looks like that. I'll have to go over there myself and take a look to find you a way out."

"That's great, Remus!" James shouted happily.

"I'll go with you, Remus. You know, for backup," Sirius declared. The two turned and looked at Peter expectantly.

"What?" he squeaked.

"That's okay, Worms. You can be on the lookout. Make sure that no one comes looking for any of us three. And if Snape comes by, pretend you don't know anything about the situation. And keep a constant watch on the Marauder's Map to see if any of us are on our way back, okay?" James told Peter, trusting him.

"Okay, I won't let you down Prongs," Peter said, with no intention of keeping their secret.

"Keep the mirror near you, Prongs. We might need to talk to you," Sirius told him as he and Remus started preparing to find James.

Remus, finishing well before Sirius, ran to James's trunk and retrieved the Marauder's Map. Although he knew that the location was in the Forbidden Forest, meaning it had to be on the map, he wanted to check to look for directions.

Confused, Remus kept staring at the part of the map where he knew the giant cave was sitting.

"Sirius?" Remus called.

"What? Are you ready?" Sirius asked back.

"Come over here." After a few seconds, Sirius stumbled out of the bathroom, tripping over himself as he threw on his robe.

"What's wrong?"

"The place where James is isn't on the map, that's what's wrong," Remus answered, a little bit annoyed.

"Well, you know the way, right? So it won't be _that_ hard to find where he is."

"You don't understand, do you Sirius? He is in the Forbidden Forest and we included that on the map. If it is not showing something is either wrong with the map or someone is not letting us see where he is."

"But that doesn't make any sense," Sirius said confused.

"Exactly," Remus muttered.

Remus began quickly walking out of the room, and a confused, and still a little tired, Sirius tried to catch up to him.

----------------------

Severus Snape was making his way along one of the many seventh floor corridors when he finally stumbled upon the portrait that would allow him to enter.

"Password?" the Fat Lady asked, giving him a look that showed that she clearly did not trust him.

"I'm not going to go in; I'm waiting for someone to meet me. I wouldn't go into that foul common room if it was the last place on earth," Snape announced, glaring at the portrait.

"Well!" she exclaimed, annoyed and shocked by the rudeness of the person in front of her.

She turned to the side and went back to her original pose, ignoring Snape. After a few minutes, the door burst open and Snape was pulled inside the room.

"Peter Pettigrew, what took you so long?" Snape asked, brushing non-existent dust particles off of his robes.

"S-sorry. I had to- to wait until Remus-Remus and Si-Sirius w-were g-gone for sure," he stuttered.

Snape glared at him and walked toward the right hand side of the common room and began to walk up the stairs, "And stop all that stuttering of yours."

Peter realized where he had gone and hurried to follow after him.

Once they were both in the dorm room, Peter began telling Snape exactly what had happened, from the time that they all realized that James wasn't here, or coming back, to when Sirius and Remus left to go find James.

"I've been tracking them on the map but, I can't seem to find them right now. They should be on the map because Remus said that they were going into the For-Forbidden Forest but-but I can't see-seem to find them," Peter concluded in his stuttering speech.

"Hmm, yes, he did do a fine job of making that possible, didn't he?" Snape questioned Peter, not expecting an answer, as he started at the map.

"You mean Sirius, James, Remus, and me?" Peter asked, proud, thinking that he meant the map.

Snape looked up and rolled his dark, hate filled eyes, "No, not you, you dimwit. I meant the person who modified the map to not show where that _Potter_ is being held captive and anything within a ten-mile radius of him."

"Who did that?" Peter asked, once again when he wasn't supposed to.

"Never mind that!" Snape yelled, losing his cool, "I've found out all I need to know."

He then got up and began to leave the room, leaving a confused Peter behind, wondering if he did the right thing.

--------------------

"We should have brought the invisibility cloak," Sirius hissed at Remus.

"I already _told_ you that I couldn't find it," Remus whispered back at Sirius.

Sirius continued following Remus through all of the thorny bushes and trees toward the way that Remus thought was the cave. After several minutes, Sirius began to complain, once again.

"Moony, are you sure this is the right way? I mean we've been walking forever already! What if you forgot the way and we aren't even walking to the right place? Why would Hagrid take you out this far anyway? Wouldn't you have stopped somewhere close to the school? Are you even---"

"Do you want to help James or not?" was all Remus said to cause Sirius to stop talking for nearly the rest of the way.

After a few more minutes of fast walking, avoiding large animals, and trying not to bump into trees, they could see the outline of the large cave.

Sirius suddenly stopped and pulled Remus back with him, "We have to tell Prongs where we are so that he'll be ready to get out of there as soon as we find a way."

Remus agreed and Sirius pulled out the two-way mirror.

"James, James!" Sirius whispered as loudly as he dared.

"Sirius, Moony, is that you?" James asked, also whispering.

"Yes, we are really close to where you are. We wanted to tell you to be ready because we are going to try and get you out as fast as we can," Remus explained to James.

"Alright, just be careful. I don't want anything happening to you two as well," James told them, hoping they would listen, "If you see any indication that it isn't safe to come get me, turn around and run as fast as you can back to the castle."

"Don't worry, James. We'll be careful," Sirius promised.

Sirius put the mirror away and he and Remus continued walking, at a much slower pace than before, toward the cave.

Both of them had their wands out in case of emergency, and both hoped that they wouldn't need them to duel.

Sirius was walking back to back with Remus, checking that no one was coming from the back and right, and Remus from the left and front side.

"Ow! Remus, why'd you stop?" Sirius questioned as bumped his head against Remus's due to his abrupt stop.

"Look to you left," was all he said.

"Bloodly hell," Sirius muttered. Next to him, were close to two dozen Death Eaters all of them ready to duel.

"If I don't get out of this, tell Arielle I love her," Sirius mumbled as he and Remus started thinking up spells to use as the Death Eaters began forming a circle around

them.

"Same to Nicole," Remus said, as the first spell was shot.

Sirius and Remus began fighting more than they had ever fought before. Spell after spell were lighting up the forest and also scaring the two seventh years forced to combat them.

Somewhere in the cave that he was sitting in, James knew something had just gone terribly wrong.


	9. Terrors of Traitors

A/N: Well, I went on a writing spree and finished this chapter in about two days. I really like this chapter and it is here to show what happened to all of the characters. It mainly focuses on Peter and Julie and most of it is in their perspective. There is a little at the end about Arielle and Nicole since I haven't been describing too much lately. Hopefully, you'll like it! Leave a review if you want to tell me how you felt about it. It's okay if you don't but I would really appreciate if you did. Without further ado, I give you: Chapter 9; Terrors of Tratiors.

* * *

Saying that Peter was afraid would fall short of what he was feeling. Terrorized would actually be the word for it. Even though he didn't let anyone see how terrified he was, it was a different story when he was completely alone.

It had now been five days since Sirius and Remus had gone to find James. Five days, in which Peter's mind wandered, and he hoped that the three of them were alright at the same time he wished everything would go according to the new plan. So far, there hadn't been a day that went by where he wasn't afraid of, practically, everything.

He had been trying not to think about his terrors and had been keeping himself very busy in order to stop thinking the thoughts that he knew would start pouring in. At the moment, he was leaning against the soft white pillows on his bed with his books on his laps, the curtains of his four-poster bed thrown open, studying. At first, he wasn't even aware of the fact that his pudgy hand had stopped the process of writing his Charms essay. His mind was in a different place.

_'What if someone figures it out? What if someone knows that /i I i was the last one to see Sirius and Remus before they left? What if they know that I am the one who sent them on the fatal mission that they hadn't planned?"_

The part of his mind that was used to counter acting these kinds of thoughts suddenly took over and gave him the assurance he needed.

_'No one is going to figure the plan out! Severus said that it was full-proof. There is no way that he lied to you when there is just as big of a chance of him getting caught in this. And why would it matter if someone knew that you were the last person to see Sirius and Remus? You_are_ after all their best friends. There wouldn't be anything weird about that at all. Plus, there is no way that someone could find out that you were the one who sent them off. It wasn't even your fault that they went on that mission in the first place. James asked if they would come to save him. All you did was opt to stay out of the part of the plan where you go to find James. You had a place in the plan, anyway. You were to stay in the dorm and make sure nothing bad happened to them.'_

"And a lot of good I did on that job, huh?" Peter said out loud.

_'The only thing I am going to accomplish by my staying here to continue thinking up dumb thoughts like these. I might as well go down to the common room and talk to someone who will get my mind of these things.'_

As he was getting out of bed, though, another thought struck him_, 'What if Sirius and Remus find out that I was the one that caused the Death Eaters to come to attack the spot where they were?'_

_'Well, I'll just have to hope that they won't be smart enough to figure it out.'_

Deep down inside, he knew that Sirius, Remus, and James would have probably figured it out by now, but he couldn't make himself think of how much they would hate him if they had.

Without bothering to make his bed neat again and straightening up his books, he swung his legs over the bed and pushed his body up and out. He then made his way out of the room and proceeded to make his way down the staircase, into the Gryffindor common room.

-------------------

_'What had gone so completely wrong? Why had I agreed to join the Dark Lord in his reign of terror, anyway? Was there any real reason? I was pretty, popular, and well liked by everyone. Why had I ruined my life like this? Why do I have to be so terrified?'_ Julie Edmonds asked herself as she sat up in her dorm room.

Every little sound she heard caused her to jump in fear and look around the room. Almost every time she would expect to find one of the many Death Eaters that Snape had told her he would unleash on her if she did something wrong again lurking around.

She wasn't expecting anyone to come in through the main door anytime soon. Arielle and Nicole were both out by the lake, sulking. At least until an hour before dinner, she had the whole room to herself.

She knew that she was safe at the moment. All of the Death Eaters knew how much torture Snape had put her through because of her poor judgment. Anxiously, she looked around the room, hoping that she actually was completely alone. She wanted to voice her thoughts but, because of the nature of them, she didn't want anyone else to hear them.

"I'm in too deep now. There is no backing out. If only I had just rejected them when they first asked me to join them, I wouldn't be in this mess. There was no reason for me to join them anyway," she whispered softly, her voice steadily rising until she was yelling.

"What have I done? I've put an innocent girl in the middle of the Dark Lord and his cronies. I've trapped James Potter somewhere in the Forbidden Forest and no one knows where he is. I've worried the families of almost every student in this school. I've confused and frightened many members of the faculty, the students, and everyone in the Ministry of Magic. And why? Just so that I would know hat people 'respect' me. They don't care about me. As long as I don't give away their _precious_ secrets everything is fine!"

She began to sob loudly and covered her formally beautiful face in her small hands and shook her head. With a streak of anger, she pushed off all of the small objects on her desk that she had collected from her friends over the years.

Slowly, the sobs began to subside and Julie's body quit shaking. With a shudder, she began whispering once again, "I'm so afraid; afraid of myself. What if the next time someone gets really hurt? What will I do next in order to make myself happy?"

--------------------

_'The only thing that I wanted to do was be happy and popular. What is so wrong about that? Nothing, that's what...'_ Peter thought to himself as he slumped even lower into the couch in the Gryffindor common room.

_'There is something wrong with that when you put your friends in danger while trying to become popular! Plus, you could lose your best friends because of what you did,'_ Peter answered himself_, 'What if you killed Lily Evans? You heard what the Dark Lord said! He was going to bring Lily to the graveyard and, and... well, you know. He doesn't care if he tortures 'just another Mudblood', much less kill. You shouldn't have said anything to him about her. Besides, you were popular before you tried to pull this stunt. You are a Marauder, for Merlin's sake! How is selling your friends out going to make you any more popular? That will just make you less popular!'_

"...Peter? Are you even listening to me? Peter!" one of Peter's friends in sixth year, Ralph, asked.

"Huh? What?" he asked, caught not having been paying attention.

"Did you hear a word I said?" he asked, giving him an accusing and slightly irritated look. The two other sixth year boys and other fifth girl around him also gave him the same looks.

"I'm sorry, you guys. I just... I just need some time to think," he said getting up and nearly running through the portrait hole and out into the hallways.

Walking as quickly as he could, he made his way toward the hallway he knew that would contain the Room of Requirement.

_'This is stupid! I had the whole dorm room to myself to think and then I walk out here to think in a different place. I should have just stayed in there with Ralph and them and forgotten about this whole mess,'_ Peter told himself as he reached the seemingly empty wall.

_'I need a place to think. I need a place to think. I need a place to think,'_ Peter thought as he walked in front of the small area where he knew a door would soon appear.

Once the door was visible, Peter reached out his hand, twisted the brass handle, and pushed the door in.

As soon as he was inside, he slammed the door shut and sat down on the large, comfy lounge chair that was place slightly to the right side of the room. The huge place a replica of the Forbidden Forest except there weren't any deadly creatures running amongst the trees. Many red and silver, a mix of the two houses where his loyalties laid, lounge chairs were placed around the room as well.

"I guess I was popular before all this. And the only people that know that I did anything are just a few Slytherines anyway. They aren't even anyone that I ever wanted to be friends with, in the first place. All they are just a bunch of Muggle haters and wannabe Death Eaters," Peter admitted to himself.

"I just wanted to be happy. I thought that these people actually cared about how I felt. James, Remus, and Sirius act as though I am not even good enough to be friends with them. Well, at least James and Sirius... That day that Snape came up to me was one of the best days of my life. I felt as if, for the first time, I was actually somebody important. As if my opinion mattered and that if I thought something was right, it would get done. But that never even happened. Snape promised me that what I wanted was important, but really, nothing I said matters," Peter felt a surge of rage and kicked the walls of the room hard and tried to ignore the pain that began to radiate through his leg.

"Worst of all," he said softly to himself, "I might have killed off the only true friends I ever had."

--------------------

"I really did it this time. I'm going to get in the biggest trouble ever. There is no way that I am going to just get forgiven for this. Snape told me that his 'little punishment' had nothing to do with what the Dark Lord was going to do to me. He told me to expect something bigger and worse to come from him," Julie said to herself as she stood in front of the mirror in her bathroom.

She was examining the cuts and bruises that were showing clearly against her abnormally pale face. Underneath her eyes were large bags that gave away the fact that she had been not getting enough sleep at all. Her silky blonde hair was now a messy pile of tangles that was placed untidily on top of her head in a huge bun. With a terrible effort and a large groan, she sat down on to the ledge of the bathtub.

From inside a pocket in her robes, Julie pulled out her wand and began to go through her daily process of repairing her injuries. Snape had warned her not to go to Madame Pomfrey unless she 'wanted to get hurt ten times worse than the first time'.

Afraid that Snape would stay true to his word, she had refrained from properly getting her many lacerations fixed. Although this made facing the continuous questions tough to answer, she knew it was better to do as she was told.

"It wasn't as though I actually intended to like Potter. If the Dark Lord was so stuck on making sure his plan followed through, he shouldn't have stuck a newcomer on such a tough job. Nearly the whole female population at Hogwarts is in love with James. What made everyone think that I wasn't too?" Julie complained to herself as she began to apply a scar receding cream onto her slowly fading cuts.

Once she was done trying to heal herself, she walked out of the bathroom and sat back down onto her bed. Looking over to Arielle's bed, which was next to hers, she felt the tears beginning to form in her eyes. On her table, there was a picture frame with all of the girls in their dorm room together smiling and waving at the camera. She reached over and picked up the flower frame and a small mirror that was placed beside it. When she saw how happy and beautiful she looked in the picture compared to how wrecked she looked at the moment, she let herself cry for what seemed like the thousandth time since she joined the dark side.

As soon as she stopped crying and shaking, the terrible thoughts began coming again.

"What is the Dark Lord going to do to me? Will it be as bad as what Snape did? Or will it be worse?"

"I didn't really even do anything wrong! As promised, I brought James to Hogsmeade with me. My portion of that terrible plan was **OVER**! I didn't have anything else to do! Why is it that I have to be punished for doing what I was told to do? It isn't i my /i fault that Evans just happened to be walking in the area when James and I were going into the coffee shop."

"In fact, I should be praised for being the most loyal Death Eater to join the dark forces. I'm the only one in all of the ranks that would have been able to get James Potter to Hogsmeade. I'd like to see Lucius Malfoy, Snape, or even Potter's best friend Peter Pettigrew bring him along with them," Julie exclaimed, near hysterical.

"It's just not **FAIR**! Why does this have to happen to me? I didn't even have a _choice_ in all of this mess. I would have walked away at any chance I got. But did I ever _get_ a chance? No! I hate this!" Julie yelled out as loud as her voice would let her go, the tears once again forcing way out of her eyes and all over her face.

With the tears still coming down her face, she threw her head back onto the pillow behind her and pushed her way under the covers. The last thought she could recall she had was _'Thank goodness it's Sunday."_

_--------------------_

"Everything is wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong. The Dark Lord is going to punish me so badly. I let Lupin and Black find out where Potter is. He is going to kill me for doing that. Why did I have to be so STUPID! I knew they were trying to figure out where James was but all I did was stand by and hope that they wouldn't," Peter yelled as he continued walking around the replica of the Forbidden Forest and kicking around the rich soil. Although the trees towered all around him, he knew exactly how to get back.

"How could Snape be that stupid? Didn't he realize that James had the two-way mirror on him? He probably thought that he had it for something dumb like vanity instead of communication. Now, because of his mistake, I am going to be in trouble. At least we were able to get those Death Eaters at the scene quickly. The Dark Lord would never forgive either of us for letting Sirius, James, and Remus all get out without so much as a scratch."

"What is he going to do to me? At least I know that it won't be as bad as what is going to happen to Edmonds. Even though I let Sirius and Remus figure out where James is, I led both of them into a trap. All Edmonds did was mess everything up and made it harder for the rest of us to get the plan going."

"I wish I could just get my punishment over with. It is more torture not knowing what is going to happen to you and make you worry about it than actually doing something to you," Peter explained to himself, for no reason.

"It isn't exactly all _my_ fault that this happened. How was I supposed to know that Remus had been there before? That isn't exactly something you just causally ask your friends," Peter reasoned to himself, trying to push all of the blame off him, "It was much more Snape's fault than it was my own. If he had just found the mirror and gotten rid of it in the first place, none of us would have been in this mess."

"If Edmonds had only been able to keep James away from Evans long enough to get him trapped, the whole thing could have been avoided. Those Death Eaters wouldn't have accidentally gotten Evans instead of Potter. If they would have done their job right, Snape and I wouldn't have had to trick James into safety. Then, I wouldn't have to feel guilty and have all of this on my conscious," Peter grumbled.

For a few minutes, he continued walking around the large forest, the only happy thought in his mind was that he was alone, and then he couldn't hold it in any longer.

"This is bloody RIDICULOUS! I should go out and help them. None of the stupid Death Eaters will be looking out for me. None of them will think that I would be brave enough to go out into the forest without someone helping me. I am going to go out there and save my friends," Peter exclaimed furiously.

He stormed his way through the maze of trees and plants and finally made his way to the door that would lead him out into the corridor. But before he could get out of the door, fear overtook him once again. He stood there, his hand extended toward the doorknob, waiting for the courage to open it. Finally, he withdrew his hand and leaned back against a nearby tree.

"I don't want to risk getting into any more trouble. Sirius, Remus, and James are going to have to get out of this one on their own," Peter decided, part of him wishing he was brave enough to leave and save his friends.

--------------------

Arielle and Nicole sat by the edge of the lake, their tear-stained faces facing straight forward, toward the quiet and peace of the lake.

"Nicole?" Arielle said, her voice shaking. Without saying anything, Nicole signaled her to talk.

"It's been five days, hasn't it?" she asked.

Nicole nodded her head, afraid that if she talked, she would breakdown and continue crying.

"Where are they?" she asked her, hoping that she would know the answer, although she hadn't know for the past thousand or so times.

"I don't know, Arielle," she responded hoarsely.

"Let's recap, then," Arielle said, the bitterness quite apparent in her voice, "Lily, our best friend, gets taken from us. James, one of our good friends, gets taken from us. Sirius, the person that I never even got a chance to tell that I loved, gets taken from us.

And..."

"And Remus. Sweet Remus that never did anything to harm anybody. The one guy that ever really cared about me and the one that I ever really cared about gets taken from us," Nicole finished for her, as she forced the lump in her throat to go away.

"I think it is quite fair for us to say that our lives stink," Arielle said as pulled the heavy jacket she was wearing around her even tighter. Although it was literally freezing cold and the ice was slowly begin to form at the corners of the lake, the two girls hardly noticed. All they cared about was getting their friends and loved ones back in one piece. Unfortunately, there was no way for them to go about that.

"Arielle?" Nicole asked, something finally clicking in her head, "I just thought of something.

"What?" Arielle asked with a slight sniffle.

"How come that Pettigrew fellow is still here? Isn't he also a Marauder? I find it very hard to believe that there is a logical reason that he stayed behind when the rest of the four are gone. Something is very wrong here, and I intend to find out what," Nicole said, jumping from her spot in one of the only places where there was no snow on the ground.

"What exactly are you going to do, Nicole?" Arielle asked.

"I am going up to that _rat_ Pettigrew and asking him what's going on. Are you coming with me or are you just going to sit here and sulk?" Nicole asked sharply, noticing that Arielle hadn't moved from her spot.

Arielle pushed herself up and off the ground to join Nicole as she began to make her way back to the castle.

--------------------

"Peter! Just the guy we were looking for!" Arielle called out repeating the line that she and Nicole had been rehearsing as they were searching for Peter, slowly stepping her way toward Peter.

Peter, confused and making his way back to the common room, turned around to see Nicole and Arielle coming toward him.

_'They can't possibly_ know_ can they?"_ Peter thought to himself in fear as he looked upon the two girls.

Nicole threw her arm around Peter's neck, as did Arielle, as she began to talk, "Peter, Peter, Peter! What brings you here?" Nicole pulled her finger along Peter's cheek in a comforting gesture.

"I-I was just going t-to-to," Peter started.

"Mm-hmm, yeah, whatever," Arielle said to make him be quiet, "Anywho, Nicole and I were wondering which of us you find more attractive." She smiled at him, forcing herself make the smile look as genuine as possible and not roll her eyes at the absurdity of the statement.

"Wha-what!" Peter asked in shock, "What about Sirius and Remus?"

"Who and who?" Arielle asked, feigning a look of confusion.

"Oh, um, nevermind," Peter said, thinking that the two girls actually did like him.

"So? Who will it be?" Nicole asked smiling as she flirtatiously flipped her black her away from her face, causing it land on her shoulder.

"Oh, er, well," Peter said, pulling at the end of his coller.

"Pick me! Pick me! I would do _anything_ to go on a date with you Peter, darling," Arielle said as she batted her dark brown eyelashes and made sure to focus her dazzling hazel eyes to stare into Peter's watery ones.

"Really?" he asked in surprise.

"Oh, of course we would, sweetie!" Nicole answered, "We were just waiting until the day that Lupin and Black would leave us alone. Now, we can focus all of our attention on you!"

Arielle and Nicole were proud of themselves. They had managed to make Peter completely forget about getting to the common room, as they were now walking in the opposite direction, and had distracted him at the same time. Arielle nodded over to Nicole in an inconspicuous manner and she took the hint.

"Oh I like completely forgot!" Arielle said, making herself sound like a ditzy girl, twirling her silky brown hair around her fingers, "We like have a present for you!"

"You do?" he asked, only slightly suspicious.

"Yeah!" Nicole said, "Now close your eyes..."

Peter, doing as he was told, closed his eyes and waited for his 'surprise' to come. Nicole and Arielle both quickly pulled out their wands.

_"Petrificus Totalus!"_ they both yelled at once, right after Peter's eyes opened in surprise and confusion.

"Surprise," Arielle said her voice low and filled with anger as she and Nicole levitated Peter to the nearest girl's bathroom. Once there they quickly made sure that no one was in there, locked the door, and placed a silencing charm upon it.

Confused, Peter looked from one girl to the other in shock, not being able to say anything.

"If you agree to tell us everything that has been going on, we will let you go. You will not tell anyone of this, and if, by chance, you do, the punishment will be deadly. If you choose not to, you may stay here until someone finds your body," Nicole said, her voice dangerously low and cold.

Arielle gave her a proud look, than proceeded to glare down at Peter, "Blink once for yes, twice for no."

Without wasting any time, Peter blinked once. Arielle bent down and removed the wand from his pocket and put a charm on it to protect it from any spell directed at it.

Nicole then took off the body-binding spell and allowed Peter to sit up against the bathroom stall.

He took a few terrified deep breaths, and Nicole, getting annoyed, kicked him in his large stomach.

"Ouch," he muttered, rubbing the sore spot.

"YOU BETTER START TALKING, PETTIGREW!" Arielle yelled, losing her patience and pointing her wand toward his heart.

"Arielle," Nicole said, giving her a look that said I-miss-them-too-but-you-have-to-stay-calm!

Arielle snorted and pulled her wand away, "I wouldn't waste my time on you anyway."

Nicole retrieved the bottle of Veritaserum from her inner robe pocket. She quickly dripped two big drops in Peter's unwilling mouth and asked him to repeat the story of exactly what happened. After a few more seconds of silence, Peter began telling the story.

He began with the trip to Hogsmeade where their whole plan started messing up because of Julie Edmonds. Also, he explained to the two girls how it was an accident that Lily was taken first and James after. Then, he explained about the long process of creating a plan to get James away and capturing him. Next, he told them about the discovery of the two-way mirror and how Sirius and Remus found out where he was. Here, Nicole and Arielle smiled proudly for a few seconds, and Peter rolled his eyes. Continuing his tale, he told the two about how Sirius and Remus left to go find James. Finally, he concluded by letting them know that many Death Eaters were alerted and went to the spot where they knew Sirius and Remus would show up. Once they saw those two, he said that they began dueling.

"And that is all so far," Peter spoke truthfully. After about a minute or so, the effects of the potion wore off.

"Now Peter, you have a choice. You may either speak of this to no one, or forever stay in this bathroom, immobilized. It's your choice," Arielle told him, reiterating Nicole's words only slightly differently.

"I-I w-won't tell-tell anyone about thi-this," Peter said.

"Wait a second," Nicole said, once again removing the vile which contained the Veritaserum. This time, though, she only gave Peter a single tiny drop, long enough to last only a minute.

"Will you speak of this to anyone or will we have to leave you in this bathroom for the rest of your life?" Nicole questioned, knowing that she would get the truth.

"I won't tell anyone about this," Peter answered, the potion causing him to speak clearly, without stuttering.

"Good," Arielle murmured. The two best friends waited until the potion's magic stopped.

"Get out of our sight, you scum," Nicole said to him. When Arielle saw him giving her a defiant look, she, once again, pulled out her wand and pointed it to his heart.

"What abo-about my-my wan-wand?" Peter stuttered.

"You'll get it back when we are sure that there are people around that can take you down," Nicole answered, giving him a shove and causing him to get closer to the exit.

Arielle smirked and put away her wand as she saw how Peter's eyes grew wide in fear and he ran out of the door.

The brunette was about to congratulate Nicole when she remembered the terrible news that they had just heard.

"So... what are we going to do about this?" Arielle asked, her voice sounding small and tiny when it echoed through the large bathroom.

"I don't know," Nicole responded, her voice smaller.

The two girls looked at each other helplessly and left the bathroom. Although they knew that their actions could get themselves killed, they were determined to get their friends back.


End file.
